The Roots Initiative

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The Roots Initiative TRI exists to activate Black youth to drive transformative change in their communities and beyond.

10/08/2026

Middle schoolers are often overlooked when it comes to leadership development, but we know they already have the capacity to analyze, strategize, and lead. TRI exists to give them the space to sharpen those instincts.

At the start of every session, our Architects tackle a provocative statement, defending why they agree, disagree, or stand somewhere in the middle.

This week’s debate: "If everyone has to follow the same rule, that rule is automatically fair."

Listen to how they broke it down below. 👇🏾

10/07/2026

Did you ever wonder what The Roots Initiative AL3 program is all about?

Here’s a sneak peek 👀

AL3 is not simply about teaching young people how to “be leaders.” AL3 affirms what young people know on a soul level, helps them recognize that they already possess leadership capacity—and then gives them the tools, relationships, and support to use it.

10/06/2026

Today were lifting up the life and work of Carol Moseley Braun! Shoutout to Ashley B for this dope video! 💐💐💐

Some history isn’t far away —it started right here on the South Side. 🖤Today, we’re giving flowers to Carol Moseley Brau...
10/06/2026

Some history isn’t far away —it started right here on the South Side. 🖤

Today, we’re giving flowers to Carol Moseley Braun, who changed what leadership looked like in this country.

Moseley Braun grew up on the South Side and attended Chicago schools. As a teenager, she marched alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during the fight for fair housing in our city.

Once graduated, she became a lawyer, an Illinois state legislator, Recorder of Deeds in Cook County, a United States Ambassador…

And in 1992, Illinois voters sent her to Washington, making Carol Moseley Braun the first Black woman EVER elected to the United States Senate!! 💥✊🏾

She fought for education, families, and civil rights. She challenged racism in an institution that had little patience, room, or respect for Black women.

In one of the defining moments of her Senate career, she stood on the Senate floor and helped stop federal recognition of an insignia containing a Confederate flag.

This is the history that matters most to us at The Roots Initiative.

When we teach our young people they are Architects, we want them to understand that Black folks from their neighborhoods have been building, challenging, leading, and changing this country for generations.

Carol Moseley Braun’s story is the kind of legacy our young people get to build on. Her work reminds every young Black leader coming behind her that they do not have to wait for somebody to invite them or offer them a seat at the table.

What’s up, Fam?!?It’s Friday again…We’re keeping it simple this week—20 people. $5 each. $100 for our young people.Every...
10/02/2026

What’s up, Fam?!?

It’s Friday again…

We’re keeping it simple this week—

20 people. $5 each. $100 for our young people.

Every gift helps The Roots Initiative create spaces where Black youth are supported, celebrated, and equipped to turn their ideas into action. Your $5 helps keep those spaces open, accessible, and rooted in the care our young people deserve.

We’re looking for 20 people to give $5 today. Be one of the 20 by taking these two quick steps:

1. Give $5 now: https://donorbox.org/activate-the-roots

2. Share this post with one person—a friend, family member, coworker, or neighbor—and invite them to give $5 too.

After you give, comment “I’m one of the 20” or share this message so we can celebrate each person helping us reach the goal. Your share could bring us closer to 2, 3, or 20—and every person who joins helps provide the support our young people need.

🔗 Give $5 now: https://donorbox.org/activate-the-roots

20 people. $5 each. Give today, share this post, and help us reach all 20.

Let’s show our young people that we’re here—and we got them! ✊🏾

📣 South Side, we need y’all to keep talking to us.We can sit in meetings all day and talk about what families might need...
09/28/2026

📣 South Side, we need y’all to keep talking to us.

We can sit in meetings all day and talk about what families might need. But we’d rather ask the people who actually know.

The parents getting everybody where they need to be every morning. The young people navigating school and the neighborhood every day. The teachers, mentors, coaches, aunties, uncles, grandparents, neighbors, and folks who keep showing up for our kids.

What are you seeing?

What are our young people asking for that they aren’t getting?

What are families struggling to find?

What’s already working that we need MORE of?

And what would you build if somebody finally asked you?

🖤 Give us 10–15 minutes and tell us what you know, what you’ve experienced, and what you want to see happen in our community.

📲 Take the survey:
form.jotform.com/262095559521058

Already did it? We appreciate you. Now help us get one more voice in the room. Send this to somebody who needs to be heard.✊🏾

🖤 CHICAGO, WE SEE Y’ALL.At The Roots Initiative, we believe in the power of the Village.We recognize the folks who are o...
09/23/2026

🖤 CHICAGO, WE SEE Y’ALL.

At The Roots Initiative, we believe in the power of the Village.

We recognize the folks who are out here doing the work, pouring into our young people, building community, and reminding Black youth that they already have power.

Today, we’re showing love to Assata’s Daughters. ✊🏾

Born right here in Chicago, Assata’s Daughters has spent years creating space for Black youth to learn, question, organize, lead, and build community.

And we know what that takes —
Showing up when nobody is watching.
Encouraging young people.
Listening to them.
Challenging them.
Giving them room to ask hard questions.
Putting resources behind their ideas.
And trusting them enough to LEAD.

Black youth have ideas and solutions — and they understand their communities in ways no report, panel, or outside expert ever could.

Our responsibility is to make sure they have the tools, relationships, resources, knowledge, and opportunities to BUILD.

That’s why we’re celebrating leaders and organizations across Chicago doing the work alongside us.

Assata’s Daughters, we see the years you’ve invested in Chicago’s Black youth and the community you continue to build.

Keep pouring into them.

WE GOT US. 🖤✊🏾

📣 We’re still listening.If you live here, raise your family here, work here, go to school here, or pour into young peopl...
09/22/2026

📣 We’re still listening.

If you live here, raise your family here, work here, go to school here, or pour into young people here, you see things other folks don’t.

You know what our families are carrying. You know where the opportunities are and where they aren’t. You know what our young people deserve more of.

That’s why we need your voice.

The Roots Initiative is gathering responses for our Community Field Needs Assessment, and what you tell us helps shape what we do next.

What do our young people need?
What would make things easier for families?
What resources are missing?
What’s already happening in the community that deserves more support?

And what do you wish somebody would simply listen to us about?

🖤 Tell us.

The survey takes about 10–15 minutes. No perfect answers. No professional language. Just tell us what you see, what you need, and what you want for our community.

📲 Take the survey:
form.jotform.com/262095559521058

And if you already filled it out, we need you for one more thing: send it to somebody else. Your cousin. Your neighbor. Another parent. A young person. Somebody who has been here long enough to know what’s changed and what hasn’t.

$5 FRIDAY 🖤💛Five dollars won’t change the whole world today. But it can change what’s possible for a young person right ...
09/18/2026

$5 FRIDAY 🖤💛

Five dollars won’t change the whole world today. But it can change what’s possible for a young person right here in Chicago.

That’s why we keep asking and keep showing up.

At The Roots Initiative, our Architects are learning that their voices matter, their ideas belong in the room, and they have the power to help shape what happens in their schools, neighborhoods, and communities.

Your $5 Friday gift helps us keep creating spaces where Black youth can be fully themselves while building the confidence, skills, relationships, and leadership they need to move through the world with purpose.

Investing in Black youth is recognizing who they are RIGHT NOW. ✊🏾

So today, skip one little something and put that $5 on Black brilliance.

Got $5? Give $5.
Got $10? Bless us twice. 😏
Got $25? Now the village is showing OUT.

Whatever you give, you’re helping us keep this work moving.

🔗 Give to The Roots Initiative⁠

https://donorbox.org/activate-the-roots?

📣 SOUTH SIDE, TELL US WHAT YOU REALLY NEED!The Roots Initiative is continuing our Community Field Needs Assessment, and ...
09/15/2026

📣 SOUTH SIDE, TELL US WHAT YOU REALLY NEED!

The Roots Initiative is continuing our Community Field Needs Assessment, and we need more voices at the table.

Parents. Young people. Neighbors. Educators. Community members. We want to hear from you. 🗣️

What’s working?
What isn’t?
What resources are missing?
What opportunities should our young people have access to?
What would make a real difference for families in our community?

Give us 10–15 minutes and tell us what’s real.

Your experience is knowledge. Your ideas matter. And your voice can help shape what comes next. ✊🏾

📲 Scan the QR code or take the survey here:
form.jotform.com/262095559521058

And this week, help us reach somebody we haven’t heard from yet. SHARE this post. Drop it in the group chat. Send it to a neighbor. Tag somebody who always has something to say about what our community needs. 👀😂

We want them at the table, too.

Let’s build together, fam! ✊🏾

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Chicago, IL

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