Jen LaBarbera: Rooted in Care, True to the Fight — Finding Renewal, Connection, and Liberation in the New Year

By Cesar A Reyes

At the start of a new year, it’s tempting to look for a clean slate—a reset button that wipes away fear, exhaustion, and the weight of the last twelve months. But for Jen LaBarbera, new beginnings don’t come from pretending the past didn’t happen. They come from remembering exactly who we’ve been, who we are, and how deeply connected we already are to one another.

Jen LaBarbera (they/them) is the founder of Grounded Liberation Consulting & Strategies, LLC, and their work is rooted—literally and figuratively—in history, community, and care. With over 20 years of experience as a strategic nonprofit leader, organizer, and archivist, Jen has spent their career turning LGBTQIA+ and social justice history into living tools for organizing and cultural change.

They moved to San Diego in 2015 to serve as head archivist at Lambda Archives of San Diego, collecting and preserving the stories of a community too often erased. From there, Jen went on to spend seven years at San Diego Pride, leading year-round programming and stepping in as Interim Co-Executive Director during a critical leadership transition. Along the way, San Diego stopped being just another stop on a long professional journey.

“I surprised even myself by growing such deep roots here,” Jen shares. “When I married my best friend and love of my life, Stacy, in 2024, we solidified those roots—her parents are here, our people are here, and so we’re committed to being here in San Diego for the long haul.”

That sense of commitment—to place, to people, to memory—is at the heart of Grounded Liberation. Jen describes the work simply and vividly: helping organizations meet this moment by building durable foundations rooted in community, history, and strategy. Their services range from policy and advocacy support to justice-focused trainings, community-centered archival consulting, and event content design. But the real work happens underneath all of that.

“The name honors the wisdom of forests,” Jen explains. “Roots and fungi knit together vast communities of life. Old-growth trees share nutrients. Mycelium transforms decay into new life. The whole system flourishes through shared resources.” For Jen, social justice movements should function the same way—less transactional, less siloed, and far more interdependent.

That philosophy feels especially urgent right now.

“We’re currently in an incredibly scary and difficult time in this country,” Jen says. “We—our siblings, our kids, our neighbors—are under direct attack.” Their words are steady and unflinching. “We don’t have the luxury of not working toward liberation and equity.”

And yet, Grounded Liberation is not built on panic. It’s built on care—and on a deep belief that LGBTQIA+ communities already know how to survive, adapt, and fight back.

While Jen’s services are open to all, their heart remains firmly with LGBTQIA+-serving organizations. “Launching Grounded Liberation lets me offer support now, in ways that both bring me joy and meet deeply rooted needs,” they say. There’s laughter when Jen admits that some of their favorite tasks are things most people dread: crisis communications during political chaos, tracking Supreme Court decisions at dawn, weaving together conference programming, or teaching people how to show up better for LGBTQIA+ coworkers, clients, and family members.

“These are some of my happiest nerd-spaces,” Jen says. “And they’re places where I can genuinely lift weight off people so they can focus on other parts of the work.”

As the new year begins, Jen isn’t offering a productivity hack or a shiny resolution. Instead, they offer something quieter and far more radical.

“You can’t pour from an empty cup,” they remind us. “One really powerful way to fill that cup is by taking care of each other.”

That care doesn’t have to be grand or public. It can look like dropping off soup for an ex who’s sick. Driving a friend’s kid to school. Feeding a neighbor’s cat. Sending a simple “hi” text to someone you’ve lost touch with. Even self-described hermits, Jen included, need connection. “Building stronger community ties is actually a protective factor against everything we’re currently up against.”

When asked to sum up their work in a word, Jen chooses a phrase instead: “We’re not new to this, we’re true to this.”

It’s a reminder wrapped in history. ACT UP organizing in the face of Reagan’s silence during the AIDS crisis. The defeat of the Briggs Initiative in 1978, when California voters rejected a ban on lesbian and gay teachers. Underground care networks built when healthcare systems failed trans, nonbinary, and intersex people.

“Yes, this moment is new and unique,” Jen says. “And we can also draw clear lines back to our movement’s history.” The stories are still there. The strategies are still there. The people are still here.

“We won’t always win,” Jen adds, echoing a friend and fellow consultant. “But we can’t predicate fighting on winning.”

So maybe a refreshed outlook for the new year doesn’t mean pretending things are fine. Maybe it means remembering that we’ve faced impossible moments before and built something beautiful anyway. Maybe it means tending to our roots, feeding each other, and trusting that even in hard seasons, new life is already forming underground.

Because we’re not new to this.
We’re true to this.