AFFIRMATION
AFFIRMATION is our principle and practice of asset-based engagement.
To affirm, means to state as fact, or to offer emotional support and encouragement. So, with the pillar of AFFIRMATION, we encourage our people to learn, live, and love who they authentically are. We celebrate all parts of our identities, framed by Dr. Na’im Akbar’s “African Concept of Self”: tribal, social, personal, physical, and spiritual.
We focus on what’s right, not what’s wrong. We don’t use deficit-based statistics, debilitating narratives, or destructive graphics about our people in this organization.
DECOLONIZATION
DECOLONIZATION is our principle and practice of centering the genius and freedom of our ancestors, communities, and indigenous cultures.
The definition of DECOLONIZATION is to release from the status of a colony, which requires us to remember ourselves + our world prior to colonization and to recreate ourselves + our world beyond colonization. Thus, we explore and challenge the concepts of “normalcy” and “supremacy” embedded within ideologies and social structures historically rooted in our oppression.
We prioritize voices and resources that are by us and for us and resist individuals, ideologies, and/or institutions that reinforce frameworks that kill us or cause us harm.
ORGANIZATION
ORGANIZATION is our principle and practice of utilizing and coordinating our unique talents and gifts toward a shared purpose and outcome.
To organize, means to arrange into a structured whole. Thus, we unify unique individuals and function as a whole to achieve shared goals.We are a collective, not a hierarchy, and we collaborate – internally and externally – strategically.
When we combine our diverse perspectives and special gifts, we excel, but when we attempt to force “sameness” and domination, we fail. Alone “I spark,” but together, “we BOOM!”
INNOVATION
INNOVATION is our principle and practice of creative solutions thinking and production for the progress and power of ourselves and our communities.
INNOVATION is the pillar and practice of creating new methods, ideas, or devices that push our people forward. The skills of authenticity, free-thought, and cooperative strategy are necessary to innovate, or introduce something new, to our world. We encourage our people to become solutions-leaders who conduct experiments and invent new ways to approach challenges that our communities face.
We are scientific: we experiment; we make mistakes; we learn lessons; and we invent new options.
AFFIRMATION
AFFIRMATION is our principle and practice of asset-based engagement.
To affirm, means to state as fact, or to offer emotional support and encouragement. So, with the pillar of AFFIRMATION, we encourage our people to learn, live, and love who they authentically are. We celebrate all parts of our identities, framed by Dr. Na’im Akbar’s “African Concept of Self”: tribal, social, personal, physical, and spiritual.
We focus on what’s right, not what’s wrong. We don’t use deficit-based statistics, debilitating narratives, or destructive graphics about our people in this organization.
DECOLONIZATION
DECOLONIZATION is our principle and practice of centering the genius and freedom of our ancestors, communities, and indigenous cultures.
The definition of DECOLONIZATION is to release from the status of a colony, which requires us to remember ourselves + our world prior to colonization and to recreate ourselves + our world beyond colonization. Thus, we explore and challenge the concepts of “normalcy” and “supremacy” embedded within ideologies and social structures historically rooted in our oppression.
We prioritize voices and resources that are by us and for us and resist individuals, ideologies, and/or institutions that reinforce frameworks that kill us or cause us harm.
ORGANIZATION
ORGANIZATION is our principle and practice of utilizing and coordinating our unique talents and gifts toward a shared purpose and outcome.
To organize, means to arrange into a structured whole. Thus, we unify unique individuals and function as a whole to achieve shared goals.We are a collective, not a hierarchy, and we collaborate – internally and externally – strategically.
When we combine our diverse perspectives and special gifts, we excel, but when we attempt to force “sameness” and domination, we fail. Alone “I spark,” but together, “we BOOM!”
INNOVATION
INNOVATION is our principle and practice of creative solutions thinking and production for the progress and power of ourselves and our communities.
INNOVATION is the pillar and practice of creating new methods, ideas, or devices that push our people forward. The skills of authenticity, free-thought, and cooperative strategy are necessary to innovate, or introduce something new, to our world. We encourage our people to become solutions-leaders who conduct experiments and invent new ways to approach challenges that our communities face.
We are scientific: we experiment; we make mistakes; we learn lessons; and we invent new options.
