Taproot provides facilitative leadership, movement infrastructure, and models of collective governance to cultivate self-determined and self-governed practices to scale out local solutions. 

Our goal is to build movement power. While we want to ensure organizations are established and accountable, we are not building an institution. Our role is to provide a transparent, accountable, and participatory process to help leaders and formations (be it organizational-grounded or individuals accountable to community) to come together and build infrastructure for long-term movement.  

  • Example: The Gulf South for Green New Deal. In this example, facilitative leadership focuses on our work with organizations (Churches, small neighborhood groups, to nonprofit advocates). The organizations do the typical basebuilding and organizing work, while we provide a process and space for folks to come together and create a collective governance structure that will move at a state and regional level. In this role we are supporting decision-making processes, building communications strategies and infrastructure, providing political analysis and skill support, establish resources and connections, and create a container for self-governance.

Therefore, our organizing work is focused on how we can foster self-determination, practice self-governance, and cultivate sustainability among community formations that we incubate and organize.

Our organizing process is built from GCCLP’s process. Much of the process is heavily influenced by Project South and the Southern Movement Assembly, Movement Generation’s climate justice and just transition analysis, and in the lived experiences of frontline communities facing the disasters of extractive economies and the climate crisis. We have identified the following as essential components needed in order for formations to be sustained and free:

  • Governance Process: Have practiced collective liberation and decision-making with the formations we work with? 
  • Assessment: Do we have enough understanding of the gaps and opportunities, the needs and assets each formation has in order to advance and navigate solutions.
  • Investments: Have we done enough to support the investment in political education, analysis, and leadership?