The Fields at RootSprings

The Fields at RootSprings provides land-based programs for the healing, development and community well-building of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) artists, activists, healers and communities in Minnesota. Formed in 2020, Rootsprings Cooperative is a Black-led cooperative that consists of six BIPOC lesbian worker-owners (67% Black) with more than 100 years of experience in organizing in economic, food, environmental, cultural and healing justice spaces. A hybrid between a worker cooperative and a limited-equity housing cooperative, Rootsprings Coop signed the purchase agreement for the 36-acre farmland in February 2021, officially taking the land off the speculative market; transitioning ownership from a white couple to collective BIPOC stewardship; and renaming it from Wellspring to Rootsprings. Rootsprings upholds the cooperative values of self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity, solidarity, accountability,and transparency. Fields Learning and Retreat Center (known as the Fields) is the Black-led 501(c)(3) partner organization that designs and facilitates programming and access to the land for the local BIPOC organizing community.