We build the prosperity of families receiving human services by advancing participant-centered practices at community-based agencies. We view prosperity as not just financial assets, but the rich social connections, power to direct one’s future, and the opportunities that contribute to personal and community wellbeing.
We accomplish this by equipping agencies to adopt approaches that center and connect participants—through learning experiences, evaluation, and a national network of partners. We gather and promote participant experience, insight, and data to advocate for family-centered funding and innovation.
Get to know our team and how we partner.
Operational Principles
To meet our mission, we must prioritize families experiencing poverty, our partnerships with community-based organizations, and our working relationships as a team. These operating principles are the compass that we use to maintain these priorities and guide how we treat each other, make decisions, and uphold the integrity of our achievements.
Purpose-driven Collaboration & Relationships We are working together towards a shared purpose. We nurture a sense of belonging and collaboration, and practice staying connected. We seek out diverse perspectives and relationships, honoring culture, history, and experience. We recognise where our power and privilege (as individuals or as an organization) influences, benefits, or marginalizes others. We bring our humanity to work and value the humanity in others by owning our feelings and emotions.
The scarcity of resources in non-profit and human services can lead to decisions that center an organization's growth over its purpose. While our sustainability is important to us and the partners who rely on us, our business decisions must not supersede our purpose. We also acknowledge that we won’t always be the right organization to meet our partners' needs and we support and encourage other organizations who can.
Clarity & Respect in Communication We show respect for our team and partnerships by providing each other with the information we need to make good decisions. We give and receive feedback with kindness and an open mind. We speak from our own experience and are mindful not to speak for others. We value differences of opinion and approach challenges with curiosity and seek to understand by acknowledging intent, and tending to the unintended impact.
Continuous Learning Our best decisions and solutions come from a participatory process that balances experience and knowledge from varied sources, fosters learning, and tests our assumptions and ideas with their intended audience. We start small and continuously improve so we can build lasting and meaningful work with measurable impact. We reflect on and learn from setbacks and successes alike while recognizing that each individual has knowledge and expertise. Our work performance is measured by level of engagement, adherence of team norms, and goal attainment.
Healthy Work-Life Our individual health, families, and communities are paramount to our work and personal life, activities, and responsibilities are valued and respected. We are committed to providing the employee benefits and the professional autonomy and resources to make our work a reasonable expectation and acknowledge that performance isn’t defined by work schedules. Individually, we have different boundaries that are respected because we are each committed to our professional growth and take initiative for improving performance and results. We show up, participate fully, and engage deeply.