Our Mission
We partner to create transformative change by developing and sustaining conversations that nurture the spirit of family, promote well-being and prevent violence.
Our Values
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Family
Our value of family begins with respect for and appreciation of others no matter how old, how young, where they come from, what they’ve experienced, where they are, how capable they are, how healthy they are, who they love. It extends to an individual’s choices of who they call family—what intentional, meaningful relationships they form. Our value of family extends to community and to sisterhood and brotherhood.
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Authenticity
Our commitment is to being real and present with our whole selves for every moment, every meeting, every activity, and every project.
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Liberation
We value social, economic, political, racial, ethnic, spiritual, and environmental justice. We promote freedom and facilitate transformation grounded in our value of liberation.
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Vitality
This means being strong, active, and filled with positive energy. Our value of vitality includes well-being of mind, body, spirit, and soul—and of individuals, families, communities, societies, and the earth.
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Collaboration
True collaboration is working together to have a collective impact that benefits everyone involved. Part of this value is inclusion—for us, every perspective is welcome, every voice is valuable for advancing the work.
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Excellence
We value quality, integrity, and professionalism. Our excellence is advanced by being strategic and intentional about all of our choices and by using skillful means, such as the Strengthening Families™ Protective Factors and other tools and frameworks that assist us with getting the job done!
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Love
Empathy, kindness, and patience are hallmarks of our approach to achieving wellbeing, healing and peace. Our value of love, starting with self-love, causes us to feel compassion and appreciation for everyone we encounter and allows us to have heart-to-heart connections and hold space for transformation.
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Spirit
We pay attention to the spirit of things; the energy of them. Because of this, we are attentive to synchronicity, understanding that processes that involve people are organic and often non-linear. We seek to go where the energy is and to move forward building on strengths to realize abundance and prosperity. We understand Spirit to be the foundation of everything—including family—and we aspire to know our fundamental connection.
Be Strong Families Values in Action
We’re proud of who we are and the work we do. Here’s a quick breakdown of what we’re all about:
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WHO
We are parent leaders, social justice advocates, child welfare experts, early childhood development professionals and community organizers.
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WHAT
We promote vitality, healing and self-growth to prevent violence and oppression.
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WHERE
We do our work wherever there are vulnerable families and communities.
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WHEN
We do our work when enlightened people engage us to partner with them to counteract the negative effects of trauma, poverty and oppression.
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WHY
We believe that promoting vitality builds stronger families which lead to stronger communities with less violence.
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HOW
We use empowered engagement to develop programs, workshops, trainings and technical assistance that nurture the spirit of family and prevent violence and oppression.
Be Strong Families Strategic Plan 2020-2025
Our strategic plan was co-created over a period of 18 months by more than 100 national stakeholders using an Appreciative Inquiry process. Click here to download as a PDF.