Roots Up was officially founded on October 28, 2025.
We are a new non-profit organization that grew out of a deep commitment and sense of urgency to act to preserve our values and create a foundation of voice, choice and anti-oppression principles built on true independence that can't be taken away. Truly independent spaces free of co-optation and silencing influences are increasingly lacking in this movement. Yet, they remain critical to the heart of so much of what we do.
Though many of us come from Wildflowers Alliance (and some of us still are connected there, too!), Roots Up is not meant to replace Wildflower Alliance nor compete with them. Rather, it is an effort to start something where the independence of psychiatric survivors and others with overlapping experiences is guaranteed and can continue to take shape.
Some of our urgency in forming is also connected to the current political climate. In today's world, it is imperative that we be able to resist co-optation without having to worry about losing energy to pushing back on a fiscal sponsor who is replicating oppressive dynamics, whether intentionally or not. Similarly, it is essential that we be able to set our own standards for recognizing and countering racism, transphobia, transmisogyny, ableism, sexism, sizeism and more without being held back or further harmed by an umbrella that is not equally as invested in or informed about this priority.
At present, Roots Up is unfunded and doesn't have a physical space to call home. It is currently being operated and overseen by a small Board of Directors, consultants and Advisory Boards (more info on these groups coming soon!). One of our first efforts is to ensure that anti-oppressive principles are incorporated into how we operate including our bylaws, Employee Handbook, and decision making and conflict resolution processes. Much remains to be seen as to how we develop!
In a perfect world, we hope that the work we do as Roots Up to form a strong and independent foundation will be supportive to the work to become independent that others are also trying to negotiate with their own respective situations, and that we may eventually come together as an even stronger, unified and independent community. However, we know the road ahead is long and made up of challenging terrain. So, we will remain open to however we might support and collaborate with one another as the best path forward reveals itself.
Regardless of how things take shape moving forward, we know this much for sure: Preserving and uplifting independence, choice and voice is critical to our work and to psychiatric survivor-led, anti-force and anti-oppressive movements overall. We also know that when we lose sight of these things - or become complacent about them - critical freedoms can be lost in an instant.
And so, we return to our roots.
About Our Name:
The co-founders of Roots Up have nearly 50 Wildflower Alliance years between them, including the original founder and coordinator of the Guiding Council of Western Mass (GCOW), Sera Davidow, that, in turn, co-founded Wildflower Alliance. The first name we chose for Roots Up was 'Wildflower Roots' for the following reasons:
However, we also love the name 'Roots Up' and find much meaning in that, as well as potentially less confusion. In some places, you'll still see 'Wildflower Roots' (especially initially), but we will be "doing business as" 'Roots Up' overall.