IN THE SPIRIT OF RECLAMATION…
We explicitly center BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) as well as queer and trans folks in our curriculum, classes, and community work. For over 20 years our focus has always been on accessibility, affordability and uplifting folks burdened with daily and systemic oppression. Oppression that not only makes and keeps folks sick and poor, but also removes them from their own medicine. We are called to dismantle the systems that block this life-giving access and called to re-imagine futures where BIPOC folks, and thus everyone, thrive.
HOW WE CHALLENGE SYSTEMS OF OPPRESSION:
Our small way of doing this is by creating places where BIPOC communities can reconnect with the land, plants, themselves, and their ancestral ways of healing. Where BIPOC folks can be welcomed back home to healing and herbalism. Our work is a reflection and projection of our BIPOC community. Our offerings also resonate deeply with white folks who also want to act towards imagining and creating a just and joyful future. By bringing these folks together thru reparative acts, we create a community of support.
A COMMUNITY OF SUPPORT
We are now inviting you to join this community. This community of magic-makers who are wielding their privilege against systems of oppression by redistributing wealth in order to help heal those who need it the most. This creates a network of reparations based on herbal healing that extends from an individual, to families and to communities.
HOW WE USE YOUR SUPPORT?
Contributions will go directly towards the People’s Medicine Reclamation Project, our scholarship fund for BIPOC folks to access the offerings of Rootwork Herbals. We use our scholarships to support the community with FREE access to herbal medicine, individual consultations, educational opportunities such as the People’s Medicine School and towards sustaining the amazingly abundant, Jane Minor BIPOC Community Medicine Garden, where BIPOC folks can freely access land, food and medicine.
Please consider two ways of offering support:
MONTHLY CONTRIBUTION
Join the community of monthly subscription contributors. Click the image below that corresponds with your desired monthly contribution amount, and have those funds automatically withdrawn from your account on a monthly basis.
*You can unsubscribe at any time
ONE-TIME Contributions
If you’re wanting to donate a different amount or simply don’t want a monthly contribution subscription then we have an option for you here! We gratefully welcome one time contributions, of any amount, by clicking the button below!
HERE’S THE REALITY
As a queer, Black & SWANA, single mother with chronic health issues; the community I center is my community. Those whose health has been degraded by oppression and lack of equitable medical care, need to have their healing prioritized.
Making RootworkHerbals profitable and accessible is difficult, but we’re here for the journey. Every year, we come closer to our primary goal of making this good, important work a sustainable business and we are succeeding in creating a successful form of real mutual aid, where everyone involved has their needs met.
REAL MUTUAL AID
While we have relationships with nonprofits and have worked with many throughout the years, we don’t have the bandwidth or desire to run the business as a 501c3. We want to be accountable to those we serve, to our community and do not want to be dependent on grants, which require large time and energy investments. We want to participate in mutually beneficial forms of support where folks are truly invested in healing and liberation and see plant medicine as a beautiful basis for doing so.
Whether you’ve ever taken a class from us or simply appreciate herbal medicine; if you want to leverage your privilege to practice solidarity …it is our hope that the People’s Medicine Fund provides an opportunity to feel good about where your money is being redistributed, while collectively changing lives and thus the world.
WHAT YOU GET
The feeling of connectedness, as a community member, in allowing a portion of your resources to flow towards those whose access to resources has been systemically blocked.
Being a part of returning herbal resources back into the hands of individuals and communities who have historically been disenfranchised from land ownership, endured generations of enslavement, forced removal from ancestral lands, and survival-based migrations; all of which, disconnected many folks from land and land based healing.
Being an ally in the reclamation and recognition of the powerful and profound herbal healing practices that have endured, against all odds, within BIPOC individuals and communities, by uplifting BIPOC herbalists and by helping to dismantle the white supremacy inherent in western herbalism.
Joining a community-based movement towards repairing the perpetual health damage that white supremacy and colonization has on BIPOC.
In short, the opportunity to support a small form of reparations.
AND! An infrequent newsletter with updates on the beautiful work going on at Rootwork Herbals, the People’s Medicine School and the Jane Minor BIPOC Community Medicine Garden.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Typically, no. Only donations to qualified non-profits/charities (501c3) are tax-deductible. The People’s Medicine Project is NOT a charity, it is not a hand-out, it is a form of repairing historic and current wrongs which result in BIPOC not having equal access to resources. We are proudly not a charity.
That said, we have found a 501c3 that is willing to umbrella our organization. Therefore, if you need your contribution to be tax-deductible, please reach out and we can make that happen.
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Each month, you’ll receive an emailed receipt for your contribution. At the end of this email is a link to easily cancel your subscription at any time.
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Sure, being a silent donor is honorable. And we want to create a movement. If you feel called to share the good news about your contribution and want to tell your friends, family and community about it, please share the message widely, and as much as you’re comfortable with.
We may, at times, give a shout out to our contributors, if you would like to remain anonymous, that is great, just please let us know.
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Feel free to forward this link: www.rootworkherbals.com/contribute, or the email we’ll send you when you sign up, or any of our monthly emails, or any of our Facebook or Instagram posts with your community.
We also encourage you to share this page with various email lists, organizations, businesses, or foundations of your choice. We are so grateful for your support!
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Your money will go directly towards subsidizing the cost of herbal education, herbal health consultations, and herbal medicines for BIPOC folks who wish to access these opportunities through Rootwork Herbals, but do not have the financial means to do so. Each year the demand for scholarships and work-trade far outnumber the amount we can supply and sadly, we are forced to turn folks away. We want to welcome as many BIPOC into our programs as possible, regardless of their financial situation.
Contributions collected after each year’s enrollment dates for educational offerings, will also go towards our new BIPOC Community Garden, where BIPOC folks can access a free garden plot and/or tend and harvest from our abundant food and medicine communal garden beds. We will always let you know where your contributions are going.
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Each quarter, we’ll send you an update of what’s going on at Rootwork Herbals and how your contributions are making magic. We will update you on how much money we raised, what projects the money is uplifting and what new offerings we are working on. All of this information is 100% transparent with our community.
“It has also helped me build self trust with support from the natural world.”