The book
Phoenix Uprising
What Survival Taught Me About Systems, Power, and Leadership
A memoir by Danielle Holmes, MPA
Out Saturday, December 12
We Were Never Meant To Navigate These Systems Alone
Phoenix Uprising transforms lived experience into stories, tools, research, and collective power for people navigating complex systems.
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Phoenix Uprising began with one person’s story.
It is becoming something much bigger.
Phoenix Uprising is a growing body of work built by lived experience and dedicated to helping people understand the systems that shape their lives, navigate the barriers they face, rebuild after adversity, and reclaim the power to define their own futures.
Founded by Danielle Holmes, MPA · Read her story
From that experience, we are building
Five pieces, one movement
01
A practical workbook
Twenty sections in four parts, turning what survival taught into tools you can use.
02
Educational resources
Crisis lines and where-to-start guides, checked and kept current.
03
Community programming
Workshops and focus groups, with participants paid for their time.
04
Research partnerships
Research grounded in lived experience, with the community at the center.
05
A nonprofit organization
Phoenix Uprising Project became a Colorado nonprofit corporation in October 2026, with a founding board. Our application for federal tax-exempt status is next.
The story tells the why.
The tools help us work through our journeys.
Who we’re here for
Both sides of the desk
People living it
Leaving a harmful situation, looking for housing, applying for benefits, coming home from incarceration, or starting to rebuild, and tired of figuring it all out alone.
People serving them
Staff at shelters, reentry and recovery programs, nonprofits, and agencies who want to understand the people they serve and build systems that actually work for them.
Phoenix
What are you going to burn, and rise from? People, places, and things. Each of us gets to answer that for ourselves.
Uprising
Laws govern all of us, but they’re seldom applied equally. Uprising means finding your power inside systems that weren’t built in your favor, using your voice, and learning the rules on both sides.
“You too must rise, and we rise together.”
Rise with us
Join the Movement
Run a program, want to partner, or have something that helped you get through? We’d love to hear from you.
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