Root Cause Collective

Abolition is spiritual work, and we are still being called.  

As the centennial celebration of Black History Month comes to a close, we honor Henry Highland Garnet, a pastor who understood abolition as sacred work. 

Garnet’s ministry was inseparable from his politics. From his church, he sheltered fugitives, organized communities, and preached a theology that refused to separate faith from freedom. He believed that spiritual conviction without action was empty, and that liberation required courage, disruption, and collective responsibility. 

In a time when punishment, containment, and displacement are framed as solutions to social harm, Garnet’s legacy reminds us that abolition has always been about more than dismantling systems. It is about building moral, spiritual, and material conditions where people can live with dignity. 

This lineage matters to us. At Root Cause Collective, we believe abolition is not only a political commitment, but a spiritual one, an invitation to create systems grounded in care, accountability, and collective healing rather than control. 

Reflect with us: How are you being called to practice abolition as care, as faith, or as responsibility to one another? 

This fall, we had the honor of holding space with the Freedom Community Center (FCC) in St. Louis.
  
FCC is a Black-led organization rooted in dismantling the systems that harm our people and dreaming up what real safety can look like. 

Facilitated by JoDeanne Francis and AW Shields, this Healing Justice Skills Retreat created space designed for team building, skill building, and leadership development. 

One of the most powerful moments was a gifts-naming exercise, watching each person name the strengths they carry and then witnessing what happens when those individual gifts blend into something even more potent. This led to new insights about staff members, affirmations of one another’s brilliance, and real-time collaboration that revealed just how deeply they show up for community and for each other. 

From fishbowls to role play, to the quiet moments of being fully seen, FCC showed us what it looks like when a team tends to its own soil so it can continue growing freedom for its people. 

Root Cause Collective is available to support organizations and movements committed to justice in sustaining their health while transforming systems. We offer: 
 
• Organizational Wellness Care 
• Organizational Wellness Equity Consulting 
• Retreat Curation 
• Professional & Leadership Development 
• Restorative Repair 
• Space Holding, Ministry of Presence & Event Healing Support/Care 

If your team is ready to deepen its wellness, leadership, or liberatory practice, we’d love to be in community with you. 

All year, The Root Wellness Center has been planting seeds of healing. 

Every gathering, every cohort, every ritual has been a reminder that healing is not an individual act. It’s something we do in community, in relationship, in rhythm with the earth and our ancestors. 🌍✨ 

The foundation is set, now help us build our dream. We’re working to build a North Carolina based Ecowomanist health and healing hub that draws from the rich tapestry of Black ancestral traditions, spiritual healing practices, and collective community stewardship practices that heal the land and its people simultaneously.  

If this vision moves you, we invite you to donate. 
 
Your contribution keeps our programs free, helps us reach more community members, and fuels our long-term vision: a health and healing justice hub where collective care, ancestral wisdom, nature, and research come together to build intergenerational wellness. 

🌱 Give today at the link in our bio.