We are committed to these core values and guiding principles:

 

• We are building power, shifting consciousness, and creating alternatives.

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• This work gets at the roots, is transformative, is a growing movement... not band-aid solutions.

 

• We use an approach that is inclusive rather than divisive, focused on building relationships to do better together than on emphasizing a story of victim and perpetrator.

 

• We are growing/nurturing/building community into everything we do.

 

• There’s not a distinction between the “organization” and the people benefiting, we’re all in it together. We are like organizers and movement-builders, not service-providers.

 

• The group values and is accessible to everyone, regardless of skills, learning styles… everyone has power and ability to contribute, and does not need “professional” expertise.

 

• We are intentional about our organizing strategies so that who we are as a group reflects who we are as a neighborhood.

 

• We value reciprocity, empowerment, and dignity. Our work is not charity. Those who benefit pay it forward in some way; the flow is continuous.

 

• We work at a hyper-local scale within Germantown, but hope to inspire and support other communities in doing similar work.

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• We exercise simplicity in our use of and need for financial resources.

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• We seek to critically explore and understand the world around us and our individual and collective roles in it.