The Roots Initiative

06/01/2026

Happy Pride Month!! ✨🎉🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

06/01/2026

TRI Founder & CEO Tanesha Peeples had an opportunity to celebrate with Learn 8 Middle School Graduates today as Commencement Speaker! 🙌🏾🎓✨🎉

Graduates-

You showed up. You learned, adapted, and kept moving forward, even when things felt difficult. Every assignment completed, every challenge overcome, every lesson learned has brought you to this moment.

As you step into high school, remember you come from a legacy of dreamers, builders, artists, leaders, innovators, and change makers. Excellence is not something you have to earn - it already lives within you. Your job is to nurture it, protect it, and let it shine! ✨

Congratulations on your graduation!! 🙌🏾👏🏾🎓🎉

- The Roots Initiative

06/01/2026

🗣️”These are some of our A. Philip Randolph Architects, repping the third cohort of graduates from the AL3 Leadership Fellowship. A couple of the 8th graders in white have been with us since they were in 6th grade…

These young people don’t need to be saved. They need to be poured into, invested in and prepared. Where the funding structures aren’t in place, community HAS TO fill in the gaps.”

Help us celebrate our AL3 Torchbearers! 🎉🙌🏾👏🏾✨

05/06/2026

Congratulations to our founder and CEO, Tanesha Peeples, and all Surge Fellowship leaders who will be recognized at Chicago on May 12th! 🎉✨👏🏾

Tanesha was selected by Surge Institute to receive the “Freedom Dreamer Award.”

Well deserved! We are so proud! ✊🏾🙌🏾🥂

Limited seats available. Get your tickets today!

https://secure.givelively.org/event/surge-institute/surge-fellowship-chicago-2026-leadthesurge-event

05/06/2026

05/06/2026

Congratulations to our founder and CEO, Tanesha Peeples, and all Surge Fellowship leaders who will be recognized at Chicago on May 12th! 🎉✨👏🏾

Tanesha was selected by Surge Institute to receive the “Freedom Dreamer Award.”

Well deserved! We are so proud! ✊🏾🙌🏾🥂

04/27/2026

Let me say this real clear… this ain’t just a “nice event.”

The Black Excellence Ball is what happens when people actually put money behind Black youth and mean it. Not performative. Not cute. Real support. Real pathways. Real impact.

Shoutout to our sponsors for stepping up in a way that actually matters. Because of you, young Black leaders aren’t out here guessing their way forward, they’ve got access, they’ve got backing, they’ve got options. And that changes everything.

We don’t take that lightly. At all.

And if you’ve been saying you wanna support Black youth, build community, show up for something bigger than yourself… this is that moment.

Now listen… time is basically up.

Ticket sales close THIS WEDNESDAY at 11:59 PM. After that? It’s a wrap. No “I’ll grab mine later.” Later is gone.

So here’s what you need to do:

Get your ticket.
Tell your people.
Pull up looking GOOD.

🗓 May 1, 2026
📍 Little Black Pearl
⏰ 7:00 PM – 11:00 PM

🎟️ $75

Get in the room before the door closes:
https://www.therootsinitiative.org/black-excellence-ball

It’s gonna be joy, celebration, purpose… all in one space. The kind of night people talk about after.

Don’t be the one hearing about it. Be in it. ✨🪩🥂

04/22/2026

“Teachers have moved societies.” A high school history teacher who helps students look inward to find their strengths has been named the 2026 National Teacher of the Year.

He’s spent his entire 25-year career at the same Pennsylvania high school, where he teaches Advanced Placement classes in U.S. history and African American studies. Meet Leon Smith at the link in the comments.

04/22/2026

9 days out… and it’s starting to feel real real.

You know that kind of night where everybody shows up looking good, feeling proud, and it’s bigger than just the moment? Yeah… that’s what this is.

The 3rd Annual Black Excellence Ball isn’t just about getting dressed up (even though we are doing that). It’s about pouring back into our youth, making sure they’ve got what they need long after the music stops.

Every ticket is part of that. Every person in the room is part of that.

🎟️ www.therootsinitiative.org/black-excellence-ball

Don’t wait—this isn’t one of those “I’ll grab mine later” situations. Later be gone quick.

Can’t make it? No pressure—but you can still show love:

✨ put somebody else in the room
✨ support the event
✨ give what you can

We take care of each other. That’s what this is.

🗓️ May 1, 2026
🕖 7–11PM
📍 Little Black Pearl, Chicago
🎟️ $75

9 days. Pull up how you pull up—but be part of it!