New and Improved…
As Sam Waterston said, “There is no problem that is not improved by effort, and no effort that is too paltry to be worth undertaking.” I’ve been thinking about our long vision statement for some time and began a conversation with my Board of Directors late last year. We had several United Way folks in attendance at the Oregon Nonprofit Leaders Conference breakfast and were inspired by Paul Nicholson’s presentation.
As a result of that and some hard work with amazing volunteers, we’ve improved our mission and vision.
Our new vision statement is…
Creating positive community change.
Our vision is…
Mobilizing caring to affect change.
We added a value that we believe was always the center of our work and we’re calling it out now as a value. Our values are:
Community, Compassion, Empowerment, Vision, Integrity and Inclusion.
Inclusion is the addition. We’re in the process of creating our equity statement and once it’s adopted by the Board, I’ll be sharing it with all of you!
We remain focused on the building blocks of a good life – education, income, health and transportation. Our goal for education is increasing high school completion and for income our goal is increasing financial stability and independence. In health, we’re working to maximize wellness and in transportation, we remain focused on removing barriers to get to work, to school and to needed appointments. We hope this year to create transportation opportunities for people in powerchairs and/or scooters to go to activities like Britt or the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and have transportation to get home in the evening. Right now, there is no public or private transportation available, unless you personally own it.
Other big news is that we are standing up to stay that we believe the following:
Everyone is housed.
Everyone has food.
Everyone has health care.
Everyone is safe.
And we’re working toward these statements. It’s not easy work and these are strong aspirations. These are clear, concise and credible. Our community has serious issues with housing and homelessness. We have real issues with food insecurity and food deserts. Everyone does not have health care or access to the care they need. And finally, and importantly, we need to be safe. And safe comes in all different forms – housing, food, health and where we are in community. We need your help to do our work and we’re counting on you. There are committees you can join around the areas of education, income, health and transportation. There’s public policy work. There’s the Day of Caring where we do physical labor projects in the community. Accept the challenge! Join us!
