About
Respite from Burnout Rooted in Liberation.
Envisioning a world where you can create systemic social change at a pace that works with your nervous system.
The Power is in People.
The system is failing, but one thing is for sure: people can change the world.
And people change the world daily, through relentless commitment and hard work, but that work is often underfunded, unacknowledged, and deprioritized, leaving the people doing the work feeling exhausted, resentful, and undervalued.
If you’re an activist, DEI professional, faith-based changemaker, or otherwise committed to systemic social change, you have a vision for a liberated world.
Rooted Respite is founded in the idea you get to live in the liberated world you work so hard to realize.
You already see it; now it’s time to live it.
Our Story
Taj M. Smith founded Rooted Respite out of a deep desire to know the liberation he’s spent his life working towards. He started his first business at age 9, washing cars in his neighborhood, and has worked ever since. Growing up in a low-income household taught him that money is the key to freedom, which he believed until he burnt out and dropped out in 2009.
He ultimately did finish school, but he noticed this pattern in grad school, as well as in his professional life in nonprofits and as an organizer: burning out and having to step away only to come back and burn out again. When he investigated why this kept happening, he found systemic problems at the root.
Rooted Respite was born in 2023 to help those struggling with burnout and compassion fatigue in social change uproot the cause and firmly plant themselves in the world they envision: rested, resourced, resilient, and free.
Rooted Respite follows a lineage of Black artists, scholars, and futurists who resist the status quo in their writing and thinking. Audre Lorde, Toni Morrison, bell hooks, James Baldwin, Octavia Butler, N.K. Jemisin, Tricia Hersey, and adrienne maree brown are a few names that come to mind, but the list is longer than that.
Burnout is a byproduct of the systemic and collective trauma capitalism inflicts on our bodies, minds, and spirits.
Our Founding Principles
Every being has intrinsic worth.
All life on this planet exists for itself; not as a consumable resource. By reconnecting to the intrinsic worth of all living beings, humanity can reconnect to the vital role we play in creating a sustainable future for all living beings.
Interdependence > Individualism
Every living thing relies on something else to survive in a delicate balance. The future of life on this planet hangs on humanity recognizing, appreciating, and nurturing this balance.
The small scale repeats at the large scale.
The patterns we see in our social systems repeat inside each individual person and vice versa. With awareness of our harmful patterns and their disruption, we create small-scale changes that reverberate through our culture.
Spirituality facilitates the healing of trauma.
Spirituality helps regulate the nervous system, creating space for our bodies and minds to process traumatic events and reconnect to the core of who are. When we know who we are, we are more aware of what we need to thrive.