Guiding Principles & Organizational Outcomes
Center for Whole Communities seeks to foster inclusive communities that are strongly rooted in place and where all people -- regardless of income, gender, race, ethnicity, or background -- have access to and a healthy relationship with the land. At the core of our work are principles based on justice, health and relationship.
Read our organizational statements on:
Land, Race, Power and Privilege [Board approved; PDF]
Food as Health, Land, Story and Relationship [Board approved, PDF]
CWC Strategic Priorities Review, September 2010 [Board approved, PDF]
Organizational Outcomes
Based on these principles, we work to achieve the following outcomes:
- People, Places and Communities are nurtured.
- People come together to protect and care for the places they love, offer a positive vision of the world they want to live in and, in the process, come to know one another better.
- People acknowledge, value, and work with differences of race, class, and gender as they engage in a safe and productive dialogue about power, privilege, and oppression in their work.
- People are aware and celebrate the value of both biological and cultural diversity -- and their interdependence -- as critical assets for the health and well being of people, communities and society.
- People share a rich diversity of stories. People understand and appreciate the history, values, experiences and capacities we all bring to our relationship with the land and our community.
- People recognize land as essential to the production and exchange of food, shelter and clothing -- in short, as the foundation for our sustenance and survival -- and act to ensure that the benefits of this are shared equitably among all people.
- There is civic enfranchisement and participation by all in the decisions that affect their lives and that shape the future of their communities.
- A "Whole Communities" movement is cultivated.
- Collaborative and mutually respectful relationships between leaders exist; and leaders from very different groups recognize a shared story.
- The conservation community is re-created in order to promote and nurture healthy people and healthy communities as well as healthy land. It collaborates with partners across a wide range of sectors to create positive, tangible change both for land and for a diverse range of people.
- Sectors outside of conservation see the importance and interconnectedness of land to their work.
- A popular, grassroots, community-based leadership emerges and is nurtured and recognized as a force of change across the country.
- Leaders have [new organizational structures and] new ways of thinking
about and building whole communities
- Leaders (people engaged in advancing whole communities and those struggling with un-whole communities) have an increasing number of tools to explore new visions for their communities.
- Leaders have the skills to think more inclusively, including but
not limited to:
- cultural competency
- hearing and telling stories
- dialogue
- personal creativity
- reflective leadership
- whole thinking
- personal connection with and knowledge of the land
- Leaders integrate a focus on environmental quality and ecological balance into a larger context of social diversity and equity, and adopt new definitions of health.
- Leaders go beyond narrow fields of endeavor to take a greater responsibility for the whole, from inner city to wilderness, serve to connect landscapes, and educate people about critical interdependencies.
- Leaders look beyond the boundaries of their personal philosophies and organizational missions to see and respond to problems with a deeper wisdom.
- People hold an attitude of respect and receptivity toward the wisdom of people and societies that have come before us on the land, and engage in an on-going process of learning from and for the land.
CWC is committed to a process of transformation encompassing our own staff, the participants in our retreats, the communities from which we all come, and our nation and world.
We are grateful to our many allies in this challenging endeavor.