About Us — Rooted & Rising
What We Believe
- We believe women are better together than they are alone — and that most of us are carrying more than we let on.
- We believe every woman has something to offer, and every woman has a season when she needs to receive. We create space for both.
- We believe connection doesn't require a perfect story, a put-together life, or a long history. It just requires showing up and being willing to be real.
- And we believe that a table, a meal, and a room full of women who genuinely want to see each other thrive is one of the most powerful things in the world.
How It Started
When Mercedes moved to Las Vegas in 2023, she didn't expect the loneliness. She moved here about 3 years ago to start her new life with her husband. After being widowed almost 10 years ago, losing her mother the following year, and experiencing family members move to different parts of the country, moving to another state herself just felt like too much. Between driving from Lake Las Vegas to their business in Southern Highlands almost every day, and between being new in a city that never slows down, she kept noticing the same thing: it was hard to find her people.
Not acquaintances. Not networking contacts. People.
Women to sit with over lunch. Women to be honest with. Women who weren't already five years deep into a friend group with no room for someone new.
So she did what women have always done when they can't find what they need — she built it.
Who This Is For
Mercedes attends WALK CHURCH, and was encouraged to find and foster connection through facilitating a group of women. Rooted & Rising is facilitated by Mercedes, but it isn't really about her. It is about every woman she kept noticing around her:
The one who relocated here for her husband's job and still eats lunch alone. The mom whose kids just left for college and isn't sure who she is without the carpool schedule. The remote worker whose office is her spare bedroom and whose only coworker is the dog. The stay-at-home mom who loves her family fiercely and still craves a conversation that doesn't involve homework or dinner. The woman who's been here for years but somehow never found her footing socially. If you've ever sat in a full city and felt invisible, this group was made with you in mind.
What We Are
Rooted & Rising is a bi-weekly gathering for women 35+ in the Southern Highlands community. We meet every other week for two hours — light lunch, good conversation, a little laughter, and something worth taking home.
Every meeting includes time to share what's really going on, a chance for one woman to teach the group something she knows or loves, and a closing word of encouragement to carry into the next two weeks. Sometimes we meet at a café or take a class together. Sometimes we just sit around a table and let the conversation go where it needs to go.
There's no agenda beyond connection. No homework. No performance.
The Spiritual Thread
Faith is part of who we are, but it's never a condition of belonging here.
We're guided by Christian values and we draw from scripture — not as a test or a text to be studied, but as a source of timeless wisdom that tends to say exactly what a room full of women needs to hear. If you're rooted in faith, you'll feel at home. If you're exploring, curious, or somewhere in between, you'll feel at home too.
The spiritual thread in this group is invitational, not instructional. Come as you are. Believe what you believe. You are welcome here.
