A7G started with the transformation of a teenager some communities would have given up on.

Roberto has spoken at, and received standing ovations from, some of the top education conferences in the world including SXSW-EDU, CASEL's 25th Anniversary Social and Emotional Learning Exchange, and ACT's Social and Emotional Learning and Equity Conference. He has been featured on several television programs and newspaper outlets (WGN-Chicago, Univision-Miami, WSJ-Wisconsin), and is a pioneer in combining social and emotional learning, healing centered education, utilizing racial equity and social justice approaches.

From Dope Dealer To Hope Dealer

Roberto Rivera - is Co-founder of the Alliance for the 7th Generation, a culturally sustaining movement that addresses trauma and promotes healing in staff and students. He is a former pre-doctoral fellow with the Collaborative of Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL)where he championed cultural relevance, equity, and youth voice. Both a scholar and practitioner, Roberto’s work is showcased in a permanent exhibit at Illinois Holocaust Museum in Chicago, alongside other social justice educators. Roberto has received standing ovations at SXSW-EDU, TEDx, BIF Storyteller’s Summit, and countless other events with his emphasis on combining research combined with practical stories of transformation.

Hip Hop Revivals & Fulfill The Dream

In 2005, Roberto lost his little brother Gabe to a long battle with ALL leukemia. Although he was filled with grief, his community supported him to do something creative with that emotional pain and he co-created the Hiphop Revival; a cultural festival centered on cultivating individual and collective healing through the arts. This festival was founded in Madison-WI, and has continued to Los Angeles-CA, and now is an annual event in Chicago-IL for the last 14 years. Concurrent to this work, Roberto has been bringing the healing power of the arts into schools and communities nationally, through culturally relevant social and emotional learning curriculum development and implementation. Along the way he has received numerous awards for his work, and scaled his efforts to reach over 300,000 youth nationally. However, with the increase of student grief and trauma due to COVID-19 and racial injustice, he has prioritized his time in building a global alliance of scholars, educators, and activists who are experts in creating transformative and sustained educational ecosystems. The alliance now works with schools, districts, and social service systems to support them in (re)imagining and reworking their systems in ways that put healing, well-being, and cultural sustainability at the center; such that it has the potential of impacting youth 200 years from now (7th generations).