Mission Statement, etc.

Here is my input about the various ‘about us’ statements on the webpage…

OUR VISION: I heard that there was talk Thursday of changing “mother, father son, and daughter” to “man, woman, and child” or something along those lines. I support this change. It seems like a small detail, but I think its an appropriate change to make.

OUR BELIEF: I’m okay with leaving the belief statement the way it is.

OUR MISSION: Again, small detail: but perhaps we could change the last sentence to lives, and the lives of all members of their communities. Children are members of the community, so we are not being exclusive by not mentioning them specifically.

OUR METHOD: I have the biggest problem with our “Method” statement, because I feel like it’s not completely accurate, or at least, we don’t yet have very much proof that it is accurate. I don’t think we can yet say that we have improved the everyday living conditions of our  clients, because that is our end-goal. We shouldn’t have improving the lives of our clients as an input and an output. I think it suffices that we provide and expand economic opporunities for our clients. I agree with another post earlier today, that we may not have program support to argue that we provide social support to the community. Until we have a program that specifically deals with issues of health, child education, etc., I’m not sure we should include social support in the method statement. Finally, I feel that the last sentence of the statement is a slight exaggeration of the current situation.

If I were to rewrite the statement to accommodate these changes, it would read: Expand and create economic opportunities for our clients through the provision of financial and educational support.  To do this,  we develop personal relationships with our clients, founded upon mutual respect, flexibility, and open communication.

OUR MOTIVATION: For some reason, this statement reads funny to me. I’m not sure if it’s a run-on or if it just reads awkwardly, but I have no problem with the general idea of the statement.

3 Responses to “Mission Statement, etc.

  • Concerning your comments on our method: Just because we do not yet have any programs directly targeting social issues does not mean we are not in some way supporting our clients socially. Simply becoming part of our programs connects our clients to the La Ceiba community and I would argue every community has some form of social support structure. Whether it is between clients, with Ana, or with us, we do provide access to a larger network of people in which to communicate, learn from, console, and motivate. As our organization grows I believe these indirect benefits will increase and we may indeed provide formal social support systems in the future.

    Also, I agreed with some of your comments on word choice in the mission and motivation statements. See if you think my slight variations are an improvement.

    • russellscott
      13 years ago

      Do we want to support our clients socially by having them join OUR community, or are we supporting THEIR community? That distinction is important. I was under the impression we were supporting THEIR community, and i’m not sure how we do that. but if we are only connecting them to the La Ceiba community then i guess thats alright.

      • I also agree that this distinction is important. I think supporting their community is an important role that we could play, and that’s what our mission statement will help direct us to: I don’t know that all of the things we mention have to be exactly what we’re doing right now, but rather, where we see ourselves. Personally, I see us providing support for their community, so keeping this in our mission means that we should look at ways to do this for the future.

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