New York, NY
TakeRoot Justice provides legal, participatory research and policy support to strengthen the work of grassroots and community-based groups in New York City to dismantle racial, economic, and social oppression. TakeRoot’s work has a greater impact because it is done in connection with organizing, building power, and leadership development. TakeRoot has a twenty-year history of partnering with grassroots and community-based organizations that build leadership and power within New York City’s low-income communities, particularly communities of color, immigrant communities, and others traditionally excluded from policymaking.
TakeRoot Justice employs a unique model of partnership with grassroots and community-based groups. Their partners take the lead in determining the priorities and goals for TakeRoot’s work, and advance the organization’s understanding of justice. This upends the traditional power dynamics between communities and service providers.
Many other legal service providers work with marginalized clients from a top down perspective where the attorneys are the experts and the clients are passive recipients of services. TakeRoot Justice has its name because they believe in a model of grassroots justice, from the ground up to halls of power. Most of their staff come from the communities they serve, and TakeRoot believes that their clients and partners are the experts in their own experience, who they walk side by side with.
TakeRoot believes that community organizing should be at the center of any effort to create sustainable, systemic change. The organization has a long history of partnering with grassroots and community-based organizations that build leadership and power within New York City’s low-income communities, particularly communities of color, immigrant communities and others who are traditionally excluded from policy-making.