About Mission Root™
ROOT stands for Rebuilding Our Own Tomorrow.
It is more than a name—it is a prevention strategy.
Mission ROOT™ was founded by Dr. Maryam Muhammad, a Philadelphia-raised Epidemiologist and Prevention Scientist whose life experience mirrors the communities she serves.
As a child and young person, Dr. Muhammad needed the very services Mission ROOT™ offers today.
Instead, she encountered what many youth and families still face:
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labeling instead of listening
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disregard instead of care
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cookie-cutter services
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providers operating with implicit bias
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families reduced to case files
Later, sitting at institutional and corporate tables, she watched entire zip codes be dismissed as “high risk” rather than understood as highly impacted.
Her lived experience shaped a clear truth:
Prevention must come before crisis—and it must be led by people who understand the weight communities carry.
Mission ROOT™ exists so no child or family has to navigate trauma alone, misunderstood, or too late.
Dr. Maryam Muhammad
Our Mission
“Give families the tools to build upon a stable foundation. Their toolboxes are
empty.” – Dr. Muhammad
To interrupt cycles of harm through Pre-Crisis Prevention that strengthens youth, families, and communities before crisis occurs.
We do this by:
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engaging youth as leaders, not liabilities
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supporting families before breakdown
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embedding prevention inside communities—not outside them
We do not fix people.
We remove the conditions that harm them.
OUR PRE-CRISIS PREVENTION MODEL
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CONNECTION-BASED PREVENTION
Connection is protection.
Our model centers human connection as the earliest and most effective form of prevention.
We show up:
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before systems intervene
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before families are displaced
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before youth are criminalized
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before trauma escalates
Pre-crisis prevention works because trust comes before compliance.
REPRESENTATION MATTERS
Our teams reflect the communities we serve.
Mission ROOT™ programs are delivered by:
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prevention and social scientists
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community interventionists
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peer leaders
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family coaches
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lived-experience practitioners
This matters because prevention fails when people are misunderstood.