Roots Wellness Center

04/07/2026

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey appeared to take the event in stride, saying: “If making fun of me raises more money for rental assistance, that’s a great outcome.”

04/07/2026

We have more to add to our chronicles of the Minnesota DHS fraud reaction nightmare.

We learned this week that DHS is currently aware of suspicious billing activity at a large White SUD organization in the Twin Cities. They have concrete reasons to be concerned. But has their billing been suspended? No. Innocent before proven guilty.

Fortunately, due to advocates calling, Roots Wellness Center had our funding turned back on within one week, but after a large of amount of time wasted on our end. Our funding was only reinstated after advocates stepped in. That should never be the requirement for basic fairness. We have passed CTSS and ARMHS Certification reviews, vendor compliance audits at Hennepin County, MDH audits, insurance audits and 245G licensing audits. But...guilty until proven innocent.

This larger White agency has even been telling clients who want to transfer to Roots Wellness Center for treatment that they cannot come, saying their insurance won't cover it and we're closing down. False.

Well, we are very much OPEN.

Yes, it's a challenge in this climate, no doubt. Insurance is denying, participants are losing their insurance, UCare still owes money from 2025, and a county failed to submit TCM rates to DHS until this month.

Walz picked Optum for these audits, and they are notorious for denying claims and are under investigation by the DOJ, from what I understand.

Thankfully, the Women's Foundation of Minnesota, the MN Black Collective, as well as the Janisha Gabriel Movement Protection Fund, helped us out. They also allowed us to sustain our rapid response therapy line and cover $30k in mutual aid requests. Thank you to the community for your donations as well, and to Indigenous Roots Cultural Arts Center for being our fiscal sponsor. Lastly, our own fiscal discipline has given us a temporary cushion to help us sustain through difficult times. But cost reimbursement contracts with 10% indirect make it difficult.

We have received an incredible amount of run around from DHS and the background studies department. There are very few people at DHS who are concerned about how this impacts the most vulnerable people at the end of the day, and would rather send you to the MHCP help desk than actually do their job and help providers. The run around demonstrates a full display of incompetence or concern at the state. It's embarrassing.

When I emailed DHS and pointed out these disparities, they got defensive that I would even suggest there is racial bias. Really? A White Youtuber can come to MN to spin this narrative about people of color and fraud and look at how BIPOC orgs are being targeted. The media fails to report on the massive amounts of fraud committed by White organizations.

Do I making everything about race? Yes, I do. Because everything is. We're all born into the white 'supremacist' society. We live in a racialized society.

People are going without medications and healthcare, don't have housing or food, and DHS wants to act like it doesn't target BIPOC organizations disproportionately.

A few county Commissioners have really shown up in Ramsey County as well, thank you to the elected officials who take their office seriously, and serve the community, not the county's interests only (McMurtrey and Miller)

04/06/2026

During the peak of ICE occupation of Minnesota, we launched a free therapy line for families & individuals affected by ICE. Since then, our Rapid Response hotline has supported over 100 people, including children as young as 5 years old receive ongoing mental health care. This work has been sustained by community support. But our funding is now running out. Without additional support, we will be forced to end this free therapy line, cutting off a critical lifeline for families navigating fear, trauma, and uncertainty. Because of donors like you, we’ve been able to keep going longer than expected. Today, we’re asking for your help to continue. Every little bit helps.
With your support, we can continue helping our community heal; one call, one family, one life at a time.
Donate today. Share if you can. Stand with our community. https://www.givemn.org/story/kue44g

04/02/2026

Immediate openings in our virtual IOP for substance use, which is holistic, somatic and culturally rooted. As we also expand into northern counties and rural areas with ARMHS services and virtual therapy, the real and dire substance use concerns in rural areas cannot be denied. Many folx would like a trauma informed, culturally rooted, somatic and holistic treatment approach and want options outside of their smaller towns for IOP treatment!
https://rwc-mn.com/

03/26/2026

We currently have immediate openings for ARMHS services in the following northern counties: Chisago, Isanti, and Anoka!

If you or someone you know could benefit from support with mental health skill-building, daily living, or community integration, we’re here to help.

👉 Submit your referral here: https://form.jotform.com/250904075308050

We’d love to connect! 💚

Please click the link to complete this form.

03/25/2026

With Medicaid dollars locked up by the Trump administration, many of Minnesota’s health services are losing money.

03/25/2026

I will be posting quite a bit, this is how we are documenting for our own historical record our journey and experiences of going through the federal retaliation against Minnesota, and how it trickles down to hurt the most vulnerable people.

I asked one of our ARMHS workers, who is currently being employed without insurance reimbursement, just to help people get their insurance back, on to bring these stories to life for the world.

This is what political retaliation against Minnesota does to real people.

Client 9664 – Disabled senior

In October, he tried to recertify for Medicaid. Delays happened because of his disability—his sleep schedule makes it hard to access systems that only operate during standard business hours.
By November, he was told his income was “too high.”
He was instructed to move money into an ABLE account—but couldn’t due to eligibility barriers. Then he was told to spend down his own limited funds to qualify. So he did.
Still, it wasn’t enough.
He was repeatedly asked to prove his income—forcing multiple trips to the bank in the middle of winter.
During all of this, he lost coverage.
He stopped seeing providers.
He couldn’t access medications consistently.
His mental and physical health declined.
In March, he was told to reapply—he did, with support.
He was denied.

Client 9450 – Disabled senior

Her Medicaid ended on 12/31—despite no change in income.
She was told to apply for MA-EPD and “Extra Help” for prescriptions.
Without coverage, her diabetes medication would cost $1,500 out of pocket.
She couldn’t afford it. So she went without.
This led to a medical emergency that had to be reported to Adult Protection.
No one responded. No one helped.
Calls went unanswered—until the words “medical emergency” were used.
Even then, her application was processed incorrectly.
She was told her Medicaid was reinstated.
A week later—it was gone again.
She still couldn’t access her medications.
Now she’s being told she must pay $900 in premiums before coverage can even begin—despite no change in her income or disability status.
The only reason she has medication right now is because of Medicare—not the county system that failed her.
Multiple attempts have been made to reach supervisors.
No response.

A certain county also has not updated its TCM rates with DHS, and DHS is therefore not paying for TCM either.

UCare still owes Providers across Minnesota millions of dollars, which is hurting HCMC's financial outlook and ability to sustain.
We must stop minimizing this as “red tape.” This is political retribution, and DHS is neither prepared nor equipped to confront the fraud narrative—or the very real harm it continues to inflict on communities of color.

This is what happens when systems are fully destabilized as part of Trump's retaliation against our state. And, DHS is such a mess and out of touch with reality, decisions are made without regard for the people who will pay the price and hurt the people it is meant to serve.

Seniors with different abilities and children's families are being told to spend down what little they have, go without life-saving medication, and navigate a system that won’t even return their calls. Supervisors at the county are also nonresponsive, contracted organizations are being told one thing, but the opposite is happening behind the scenes.

Please continue to share stories, we will be. The world needs to understand the impact on ground zero. Please also contact your legislators.

Thank you to the amazing county commissioners who actually respond to emails and are willing to take action. Especially Garrison McMurtrey and Kelly Miller's office.

03/25/2026

At Roots Wellness Center, we are watching people lose Medicaid coverage mid-month, and the consequences are immediate. People making $15,000 a year are being denied insurance. People are going months without medications. Children are being forced out of residential programs.

When coverage disappears, so does access to therapy, case management, treatment, prenatal care, prescriptions, hospital services.

This is not a theoretical issue. This is the most vulnerable going without care for months. And for providers, it’s creating a breaking point. We have highly trained, culturally rooted clinicians ready to serve. The need has surged. But access to care is being stripped at the same time. And the expectation is that organizations will somehow absorb that gap. We can’t.

If staff aren’t paid, services don’t exist. That’s not a lack of commitment, it's the capitalistic world we live in. No margin, no mission. We are spending more time navigating broken systems than actually serving people.

So this is a direct message to funders, foundations, and public partners:

If you want community-based services to exist, you have to fund them like they matter. Not just programs, but infrastructure, staffing, administrative capacity, stability....therefore community health. We are being asked to hold communities together while operating inside systems that are actively destabilizing them.
I have said it before, the philanthropic industrial complex is deeply problematic. The moment you critique it, you feel it. Funding becomes less certain, relationships shift if you speak up. Support gets quieter. But that doesn’t punish organizations, it punishes communities. Are funding systems designed for impact or for comfort/maintaining the status quo? The truth hurts but it needs to be said. I've seen non-profits full of with fraud, mismanagement, poor ethics, toxic culture, and mission drift.

The reality is that race, power, and dominant culture shape who is heard, who is trusted, and who is resourced. And that shows up clearly in moments like this.

We will continue to do everything in our power to sustain this work. We are doing what is required, navigating revalidation processes, submitting documentation, continuing to show up. But one's health and survival should not depend on how much instability an organization can absorb.

We'd like to complete our Community Wellness Hub to expand culturally rooted, somatic, holistic care during a time when communal trauma has surged and we do not have enough space to meet the need.

We are raising funds through our fiscal sponsor, Indigenous Roots. This is a moment that requires more than statements of support. If you are in a position to fund, advocate, or influence, this is the moment. If you are in a position to support and want to pick Roots Wellness Center as the organization:

https://www.givemn.org/organization/Roots-Wellness

Watch our video here: https://youtu.be/iHk4la8eqyc Thank you The Cordavii Team at Exit Realty Metro, Corey Nicholas Collins!

a transformative space dedicated to empowering and healing the BIPOC community in the Twin Cities. At Rooted Collaborative St. Paul, we envision a transforma...

03/24/2026

Last Wednesday, March 18th, our ARI team was out in the community distributing harm reduction and personal care items alongside the 555 Clinic.

It was also Transit Employee Appreciation Day, and we had the opportunity to connect with several Ramsey County workers and over 70 community members.

We’re grateful for the chance to show up, support, and build connections in the community 💙

03/20/2026

THANK YOU to everyone who called. MHCP called today and they are unsuspending our payments and everything is going to continue while we move through the revalidation process.

Whew. Again, community shows up for community so we can continue to show up in ours.

THANK YOU!

03/19/2026

Each year, we issue thousands of dollars in scholarships to Minnesota scholars pursuing careers in the healthcare field and trades. Awards are issued on a rolling basis. Apply through the link below.
This scholarship opportunity is made possible with funding from Minnesota Department of Health and donations from the community.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1bsGyHJk1qUEURPHlIM-YyENHYs6Sq2hCE6Hb30IgVWw/preview

03/19/2026

Too many Somali women are navigating stress, overwhelm, and life challenges without a safe space to talk about it. That’s why NAMI Minnesota is offering a free, Somali-led online wellness & support group—created by Somali women, for Somali women.

This is a confidential, welcoming space where women can connect, share, or simply listen—no pressure, no judgment.

- Led by women with lived experience
- Private, not recorded, and you can join anonymously
- Support available to help you get connected

When: 1st, 3rd & 5th Saturdays | 5:30–7:00 PM
Where: Online - Register through HeyPeers: https://heypeers.com/members/sign_up?org=NAMI%2520Minnesota

If you or someone in your network could benefit, we invite you to join or help us spread the word.

Questions or need help joining: sgc@namimn.org