Today we’d like to introduce you to Craig And Tanzania Cooper.
Hi Craig and Tanzania, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Our journey to founding UpliftUS Collective started long before the organization was created.
As individuals, we each spent years serving our communities through separate initiatives rooted in healing, empowerment, and personal growth. Tanzania Cooper, a Detroit native and graduate of Michigan State University, began her work at just 23 years old when she founded H.Y.P.E. (Helping Young People Evolve) in Washington, DC. Through grant-funded programming in multiple middle schools, she used social-emotional learning and the art of pantomime to help young people find their voice, build confidence, and navigate life’s challenges. Over five years, the organization impacted more than 1,500 youth and families.
Years later, during the pandemic, Tanzania launched Sistah Sistah Entrepreneurs Network to create a supportive community for women entrepreneurs and aspiring business owners. Through workshops, retreats, and monthly gatherings focused on business development, mental wellness, and personal growth, she supported more than 300 women. Eventually, she stepped back from the work to focus on her own healing journey and mental health.
At the same time, Craig Cooper was building a movement of his own. During the pandemic, he founded UpliftKings, a virtual safe space where men could openly discuss life, relationships, purpose, and mental health. What started as a small gathering quickly grew into a community that reached men across multiple states and even the United Kingdom. He later launched The Walking Purpose Podcast, where he hosted candid conversations with men from around the world and completed three seasons with more than 50 episodes.
At the same time, Tanzania was also using storytelling as a tool for healing and empowerment. She launched the UnLock’N Your Freedom Podcast, where she interviewed women about their life journeys, personal growth, challenges, and the lessons they learned along the way. The conversations created space for authenticity, reflection, and encouragement for women navigating their own journeys.
As our work continued to evolve, we realized that our individual platforms shared a common purpose. After bringing our visions together, we launched the UpliftUS Podcast, which aligns with the mission of UpliftUS Collective. Through honest conversations with guests from diverse backgrounds, the podcast explores topics such as mental wellness, relationships, purpose, entrepreneurship, faith, healing, and personal growth. It has become another way for us to create meaningful dialogue and remind people that they are not alone in their experiences.
Although our paths were different, our missions were remarkably similar.
Over the years, we collaborated on retreats, community conversations, and speaking engagements. We both became published authors through separate anthology projects and had the opportunity to share our stories on stages across the country, including Tanzania’s home state of Michigan through the Leadership Experience Tour. These experiences further strengthened our commitment to advocating for mental wellness, personal growth, and purpose-driven living.
What many people do not know is that our passion for this work comes from our own lived experiences. Before we ever met, we both faced significant mental health struggles in our early twenties. Craig experienced a season where he contemplated suicide and questioned whether anyone cared. A life-changing conversation with his mother reminded him that his life mattered and gave him the strength to keep going. Tanzania battled depression and suicidal ideations during college while trying to navigate adulthood and higher education without the support systems she needed. Those experiences shaped our commitment to creating spaces where people can be honest about what they are carrying and know they are not alone.
After getting married, we spent time praying about how God wanted us to use our gifts and experiences. We felt called to bring our individual visions together. That calling led to the birth of UpliftUS Collective in 2025.
Today, Craig serves as Founder and Tanzania serves as Co-Founder of UpliftUS Collective, a nonprofit organization dedicated to uplifting youth, families, and communities through mental wellness, youth development, community engagement, and purpose-driven programming. Our mission is to create spaces where people feel seen, heard, supported, and empowered to become the best versions of themselves.
Professionally, our careers have always aligned with our mission. Craig serves as a Youth Development Specialist, where he works closely with high school students to build leadership skills, confidence, and pathways to success. Also, this Fall 2026, he is pursuing his bachelor’s degree. Tanzania serves as a Student Success Advisor, supporting college students as they navigate academic challenges, access resources, and work toward their educational goals. She is currently a PhD student at Howard University.
What many people don’t realize is that we continue to lead UpliftUS Collective while working full-time in these roles. Building the organization often requires evenings, weekends, and a great deal of intentionality, but it also keeps us deeply connected to the needs of the youth, students, and families we serve.
Whether through our careers, our nonprofit, our podcast, community circles, retreats, or mental wellness events, our goal remains the same: to help people heal, grow, and discover that their story has purpose.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It definitely has not been a smooth road.
One of our biggest challenges came after the pandemic. During the pandemic, both of our communities were thriving in virtual spaces. People were actively attending online events, engaging in conversations, and looking for connection. However, as the world began to reopen, everything changed.
Like many people, we found ourselves adjusting to a new reality. We made the intentional decision to take a step back from our community work for a season so we could focus on our own personal journeys, healing, and transition into life beyond the pandemic. That period gave us time to reflect on how we wanted to move forward and what community would need to look like in a world where people were no longer gathering primarily online.
When we returned, we quickly realized that the landscape had shifted. Many people were experiencing Zoom fatigue, priorities had changed, and the online communities that once felt vibrant had become much quieter. Many of the people who had been actively involved during the pandemic were no longer engaging online, and getting people to attend events—whether virtual or in-person—became much more difficult than before.
Rather than making assumptions about what people needed, we decided to listen. We created surveys, gathered feedback, and invited people to share their experiences and challenges as they adjusted to life after the pandemic. We wanted to understand what people were struggling with, what support they were looking for, and what was missing from existing community spaces.
What we discovered was that people were craving authentic connection, safe spaces, and opportunities to talk openly about their mental health, life transitions, relationships, purpose, and personal growth. That feedback became the foundation for UpliftUS Collective and helped inform our board as we launched the organization.
Starting over and rebuilding community from scratch was not easy. There were events with low attendance, moments of uncertainty, and times when we questioned whether people still wanted these types of spaces. But those challenges taught us the importance of staying connected to the needs of the community rather than simply repeating what worked in the past.
Today, many of our programs—including our community circles, podcast, retreats, and mental wellness events—are directly shaped by the voices of the people we serve. Looking back, the obstacles helped us build something more intentional, more responsive, and ultimately more impactful.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
UpliftUS Collective is a nonprofit organization dedicated to uplifting youth, families, and communities by creating spaces where people feel seen, heard, supported, and empowered. Our work focuses on mental wellness, youth development, community engagement, and personal growth.
Our work is centered around three core pillars: Purpose Discovery, Building Meaningful and Fulfilling Lives, and Accessing Mental Health Support.
Through Purpose Discovery, we help individuals explore their identity, reflect on their experiences, share their stories, build self-confidence, and gain clarity about their goals and direction in life. We believe every person has a purpose, and sometimes people simply need the space and support to uncover it.
Through Building Meaningful and Fulfilling Lives, we focus on helping people develop the tools needed to thrive in their everyday lives. This includes social skills, emotional regulation, interpersonal awareness, goal-setting, accountability, and intentional decision-making. Our goal is to meet people where they are and help them apply these skills to their relationships, careers, personal growth, and future aspirations.
Our third pillar, Accessing Mental Health Support, focuses on reducing barriers and stigma surrounding mental health care. Through the UpliftUS Community Resource Referral Line, we connect individuals with licensed therapists and trusted community-based providers based on their location and specific needs. We recognize that awareness alone is not enough—people also need access to quality support and resources.
What makes UpliftUS Collective unique is that our work is rooted in lived experience. We are not simply teaching concepts—we are sharing lessons we have learned through our own journeys of healing, overcoming adversity, and discovering purpose. Everything we create is designed to help people feel less alone and more connected to themselves and others.
We offer a variety of programs and experiences, including community circles for men and women, mental wellness showcases, workshops, retreats, youth development programming, speaking engagements, and our UpliftUS Podcast. Through these experiences, we create opportunities for honest conversations around mental health, relationships, leadership, self-awareness, purpose, and personal development.
Since launching UpliftUS Collective, we have been intentional about creating meaningful opportunities for connection, healing, and growth. Through our community circles, workshops, retreats, podcast, and mental wellness events, we have served more than 180 youth, adults, and community members across the DMV and Detroit regions. One milestone we are especially proud of was hosting our first Mental Wellness Showcase, which brought together community members, speakers, performers, and advocates to normalize conversations around mental health and healing. Seeing people leave feeling encouraged, supported, and empowered reinforced the importance of creating spaces where people can be honest about their experiences and know they are not alone.
One of the things people often tell us is that our spaces create opportunities for genuine transformation. Participants have shared that they learned the importance of setting healthy boundaries, communicating their feelings, and recognizing their own value rather than dismissing their needs. Others have reflected on how our programs helped them embrace self-awareness, understanding that acknowledging areas for growth is not a sign of weakness, but part of being human and pursuing healing.
We have also heard from individuals who expressed how meaningful it was to be surrounded by people who allowed them to show up as their authentic selves without judgment. This is especially important in conversations around mental wellness, where many people—particularly men—often feel pressure to hide their emotions or navigate challenges alone. Creating spaces where people feel safe enough to be honest, vulnerable, and supported is at the heart of what we do.
One outcome we are especially proud of is that, based on participant surveys, 100% of attendees across our events reported feeling safe in our spaces. For us, that statistic represents more than a number—it reflects the trust people place in us and our commitment to creating environments where individuals feel seen, heard, valued, and respected.
Perhaps what means the most to us are the individuals who describe themselves as walking testimonies of the work. Some have shared that the experience changed the way they view themselves, their relationships, and their future, while others have expressed that they will never be the same because of what they gained through the community, support, and personal reflection. Those stories remind us that our work is about more than hosting events or programs—it is about helping people discover hope, healing, and a renewed sense of purpose.
These moments reinforce our belief that healing is possible, growth is lifelong, and everyone deserves a space where they can feel seen, heard, supported, and empowered on their journey.
What has been the most important lesson you’ve learned along your journey?
One of the most important lessons we have learned is that people are craving authentic spaces where they can heal, connect, and know they are not alone.
Recently, we took a leap of faith and hosted our first Mental Wellness Showcase in the DMV. As a newer organization, there was a lot of uncertainty leading up to the event. We did not know how many people would attend or what the response would be. What we discovered was that there is a real need for these types of conversations and community-centered experiences. The event brought together speakers, performers, and community members who openly shared their stories, and many attendees left feeling encouraged, inspired, and supported.
That experience reinforced something we have learned throughout our journey: when you create intentional spaces for people to be seen, heard, and valued, meaningful transformation can happen.
Because of the success and impact of our first showcase, we made the decision to bring the experience to our Detroit Chapter. We are currently planning a free Mental Wellness Showcase in partnership with local Black-owned businesses that are generously contributing event space and resources to help make the event possible. As a Detroit native, it is especially meaningful for Tanzania to bring this work back to the city that helped shape her journey.
We are also preparing for our 5th Annual UnLock’N Your Freedom Retreat in Maryland, a three-day, two-night experience focused on healing, reflection, personal growth, and community. It will be October 16-18. We offer payment plans because we believe these transformative experiences should be accessible to those who desire to invest in themselves.
Looking ahead, we remain committed to creating spaces where people can heal, grow, discover their purpose, and build meaningful connections. If our journey has taught us anything, it is that community has the power to change lives.
We are always looking to connect with organizations, community partners, mental health advocates, entrepreneurs, and changemakers who share a passion for serving others. We are also actively seeking guests for the UpliftUS Podcast to share their stories, expertise, and lived experiences. Anyone interested in partnering with us, collaborating on an event, or being featured on the podcast can reach us at letsupliftus@gmail.com.
Pricing:
- 5th Annual UnLock’N Your Freedom Retreat (all inclusive)- $399
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/upliftuscollective
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1Khcc4Y1yU/
- Youtube: https://tr.ee/XE09fZ0QPA
