The Roots Initiative

🖤 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 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 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 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! ✊🏾

📣 WE CAN’T BUILD FOR THE COMMUNITY WITHOUT HEARING FROM YOU!

You know what our neighborhoods need because you’re here. You’re raising families here. You see what our young people are navigating. You know where the gaps are, what’s working, what isn’t, and what could make our community stronger.

So we’re asking you to put us on game. 🗣️

The Roots Initiative is conducting a Community Field Needs Assessment, and we want to hear what YOU believe should come next.

What resources are missing?
What do our young people and families need more of?
Where should we be investing our energy?
What would help our community not just survive, but heal, grow, lead, and thrive?

TRI believes lasting change has to be grown in community, built from the ground up, and rooted in collective responsibility.

Your voice isn’t an afterthought.
It’s part of the blueprint.

⏱️ Give us 10–15 minutes. Tell us the real.

No perfect answers. No fancy language required. Just your experiences, your concerns, your ideas, and your vision for what our neighborhoods can become.

Take the survey by scanning the QR code or using the link below.

And SHARE THIS POST. Put it in the family group chat. Send it to another parent. A neighbor. A teacher. A young person. That cousin who has an opinion about EVERYTHING. 😂 We want to hear from them, too.

More voices. Better information. Stronger solutions.

We’re building from the roots up. Come build with us.

🔗 form.jotform.com/262095559521058

$5 FRIDAY 💛🖤

South Side, we know how this works: when everybody puts something in, everybody gets something back.

And today, we’re asking you to put $5 on our young people.

That $5 joins a bigger investment in Black youth having the mentorship, resources, healing-centered spaces, academic support, civic education, and opportunities they need to discover just how much power they already carry.

At The Roots Initiative, we’re building pathways where our young people can know their history, find their voice, develop their leadership, and turn their ideas into action.

And it’s working.

150+ Black youth reached.
84% report building emotional power.
78% report finding their voice.
78% report developing a rooted identity.

That’s what you’re putting your $5 behind.

Black brilliance. Black leadership. Black futures being designed right here, right now. ✊🏾

So, TRI Tribe, who’s got $5 for the Architects today?

Drop yours, then send this post to somebody else and tell them to match you. 🖤💛

Give $5 to The Roots Initiative⁠
🔗 https://donorbox.org/activate-the-roots?

📣 SOUTH SIDE, WE NEED TO HEAR FROM YOU.

Nobody knows what a community needs better than the people who call it home.

The Roots Initiative is asking our community to tell us what’s working, what’s missing, what families need, and what you want to see built right here in our neighborhoods.

Our Community Field Needs Assessment takes just 10–15 minutes, but what you share can help shape where TRI puts its time, resources, programming, and energy next.

What would make life better for your family?
What do our young people need?
What aren’t people talking about enough?
What do you wish existed in your neighborhood?

We’re listening. 👂🏾

There are no right answers and no need to tell us what you think we want to hear. We want the real.

Take the survey using the link below or scan the QR code in the post.

✨ And don’t stop with your own response. SHARE THIS. Send it to your family group chat. Your neighbors. Your friends. The parents at school. The folks who always have something to say about what the neighborhood needs. We want to hear from them, too.

Your neighborhood. Your experience. Your voice.

🔗 form.jotform.com/262095559521058

It’s $5 Friday, y’all. ✊🏾

Five dollars might not feel like a whole lot. But when the village shows up together? That $5 starts moving different.

It helps make sure Black youth on the South Side have spaces where they’re seen, supported, challenged, celebrated, and reminded that their ideas have power.

Your $5 helps us keep building the kind of opportunities our young Architects deserve:
mentorship that pours into them, resources that help them grow, space to find their voice, and real opportunities to lead in their schools and communities. That’s what The Roots Initiative’s Leadership Ladder is built to do.

We’re not preparing young people for somebody else’s version of the future.

They’re designing their own. 🖤💛

So if you’ve got $5 today, put it on the future of Black youth.

And if you’ve got more? We’ll put that to work too. 🙌🏾

$5. One Friday. One village showing up.

🔗 Give today: Donate to The Roots Initiative⁠

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

🏗️ BUILD TOGETHER. GROW TOGETHER. LEAD TOGETHER.

Introducing the Family Architects Initiative (FAI) — a 12-month journey designed for AL3 families to grow, learn, and step into their power side by side. 🖤

This is NOT one program for your child and another for you.

It’s one shared experience.

Once a month, you and your child will come together to strengthen your bond, build leadership skills, dream bigger, and become architects of what comes next — for your family and your community.

📅 Begins September 2026

🏗️ 12 months | Once a month

🍽️ FREE shared meal at every session

🧸 Childcare provided for younger siblings

When we invest in young people, we invest in the people raising, loving, guiding, and building alongside them too!

Your family already has the power. Let’s build with it.

🔗 Interested in joining FAI?

Fill out the interest form:
https://forms.gle/rAwLD5EXhdEWYi6H8

📣 YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD. YOUR VOICE. YOUR FUTURE.

YOU know what your community needs because you live it every day. Now we want to hear from you!

The Roots Initiative is conducting a Community Field Needs Assessment, and your feedback will directly help shape what TRI builds, supports, and prioritizes in the community.

🕐 It only takes 10–15 minutes.

Tell us what’s really going on. What matters to you and your family? What’s missing? What would make a difference? What do you want to see more of?

There are no wrong answers. Just an honest conversation and a space for your concerns, needs, hopes, and dreams.

✊🏾Your voice directly shapes what we build here.

Take the survey at the link below, or scan the QR code in this post.

👉🏾 https://form.jotform.com/262095559521058

✨✨✨Please SHARE this post with your neighbors, family, friends, and community. The more voices at the table, the stronger the work can be. ✨✨✨

This is our community. Let’s build what comes next together!