Rooted in More: A Passion Project Born at Cheba Hut — How a Late-Night Conversation Became a Mental Health Collective
In the spring of 2021, just as the world had finally started reaching any small resemblance of “normalcy” after the COVID-19 Pandemic, Bailey and I were enjoying a long-overdue socially-distanced meal at Cheba Hut in Colorado Springs. I was about 10 months into my first corporate banking position, and Bailey was graduating with her Master’s in Social Work and starting her first position with DHS. I was miserable, and she was standing in the doorway to her new career. We leaned into the energy of the re-opening world, new chapters and turning points that we were approaching, and excitement about the life ahead of us (and maybe a margarita or two), and dreamed of possibilities for our futures until Cheba Hut closed at 2:00am. I went home that night, and before bed, I jotted down the list of ways we’d imagined that we could use our shared stories to improve the world we love
A late-night dinner and yap session was nothing out of the ordinary in our adult friendship, and it was even more common that they end ambitious ideas and crazy plans. And, as always, there was no reason to think this night’s brainstorming would lead to anything more than good memories and gratitude for our shared experiences… or so we thought.
Fast forward to early fall of 2025, and life had happened fast for both of us over 4 years. I was struggling through my hardest season yet in the corporate world, working in sales for a big tech company that was slowly draining my soul. Bailey was getting ready to begin her third year as an elementary school social worker, freshly fueled by a sense of direction and inspiration for her professional passions. The fun and chaos of our early twenties had finally settled, and conversations about spouses, parenting, moving, and settling down began to influence the big dreaming we continued to enjoy together. And, brilliantly, through the imagining we had done for so long, the business idea we first tossed out at Cheba Hut over 4 years prior finally took shape into what is now - Rooted in More: A Mental Health and Resource Collective.
Rooted in More began with Bailey’s and my shared desire to build something in the world that could find people in the places we'd been before and who desperately needed to be found. In the midst of family and relationship dynamics that were turbulent and beautiful and harsh and caring, through journeys of discovering queerness and our sexualities and love and heartbreak, in valleys of depression and anxiety and oceans of grief and loss… the lives we’d experienced side by side had shown us so many of the hiding places in our worlds where hope and support and community never seemed to fully shine in. And so our shared passion was created. To do our part in the world around us to bring love, resources, and safety to the spaces we know need it most because we are in them, too.
Bailey and I both know the importance and power of a therapist or counselor who meets you where you’re at and helps bring you to where you want to be - fortunately, we have both had therapists like this. We both know that no behavioral health professional can do enough to overpower the drain of systemic oppression, marginalization, and discrimination; therefore, people deserve resources and community and support far beyond therapy and counseling. We both know that the quality of our community often shapes our human experience, and we believe everyone deserves a genuine, accepting connection. In 16 years of friendship, Bailey and I have worked together to complete tons of school group projects, lead sports teams, prank our younger siblings, put on shows, scheme against our parents, plan funerals, weddings, bachelorette trips, and vacations… we’ve done it all (almost). Now, we are honored to be working together to build Rooted in More: A Mental Health and Resource Collective. To bring hope, therapy, support, care, resources, community, encouragement, and resilience to the places where it has been scarce for far too long.
Thank you to every one of you who will join us in the coolest group project in the world. It’s a dream come true to work alongside my best friend, building an organization designed exclusively to serve people I care insanely deeply about. We can’t wait to grow with you.