ABOUT US

Nikita Barton is the Founder and Executive Director of R.O.O.T.S. Reentry Services, a rural reentry organization serving formerly incarcerated adults in Northern Mississippi through workforce training, trauma-responsive case management, and community property rehabilitation. Her commitment to this work is both personal and professional. When a family member was incarcerated, Nikita experienced directly what so many rural Mississippi families know-that the systems designed to support reentry consistently fail the people who need them most, and that the gap between release and stability can cost someone everything. That experience became the foundation of her work.
 

With a background spanning community engagement and professional service, Nikita brings a unique ability to build trust across sectors; connecting formerly incarcerated individuals with employers, landlords, mental health partners, and community institutions that might otherwise never find common ground. She approaches every partnership as a relationship first and a transaction never. Nikita founded R.O.O.T.S. on the conviction that rural communities are not too small, too poor, or too far from resources to deserve a world-class reentry program. She is building that program from the ground up starting in Northern Mississippi, with the intention of creating a replicable model that other rural communities can adapt and own.