the how
Everything we do is based upon our social entrepreneurship approach, an aspiration to follow our core values, and our focus on community empowerment. Over the years the variety of “tools” in our “toolkit” has expanded as we have identified additional challenges and have designed new responses. Although we often lead with our MicroConsignment Model, we view this as one way among many to support communities. We continually leverage our relationships, resources, know-how and that of our local team members and community partners to work holistically to address community needs and priorities. As you can see from our accomplishments from 2016 and our goals for the coming year, we have proven we can achieve a great deal with relatively little. By putting community members front and center in all of our work, and empowering local people to solve local problems, we are able to create this diversity of impact in more and more ways every year.
Our Approach
Social Entrepreneurship
We diligently work to understand the situation, needs, wants, limitations, opportunities and aspirations of our team members, clients, collaborators and partners.
Our Core Values
Empathetic
We diligently work to understand the situation, needs, wants, limitations, opportunities and aspirations of our team members, clients, collaborators and partners.
Inclusive
We strive to include all affected stakeholders in the problem identification, solution design and implementation process and are “open source” with what we learn and create.
Trusting
We enter all relationships with the assumption of goodwill, honesty and integrity in the way we would want others to do the same with us
Client Outcomes Focused
We are focused on the change and impact our work has on the lives of our clients over the short, medium and long- term.
Intentional
We are exceedingly thoughtful about how our work affects our clients and their communities taking into account potential unintended consequences
Dignified
Our interactions and interventions treat our clients with the honor and respect that they deserve and have earned.
Collaborative
We strive to work with other professionals, organizations and clients in ways that leverage strengths and mitigate weaknesses so that everyone has an opportunity to both add and derive value.
Accountable
We hold ourselves, our colleagues and our clients responsible for ethical performance and feel a sense of ownership for the successes and/failures of all stakeholders in the value chain.
Innovative
We strive to solve long-standing problems and overcome obstacles for our clients in creative, new ways that have never been tried before.
Endurable
We offer and/or create opportunities, services and products that are of the highest quality possible, create a sense of agency, are resilient and sustainable.
Practical
We are not ideological in our approach but rather focus on common sense and actionable work that contributes to us achieving our mission effectively and efficiently.
Catalytic
We are constantly seeking ways to create and implement processes and solutions that have positive and high velocity multiplier effects.
Our Focus
Community Empowerment
Our team works with community members to learn where the “gaps” exist in the empowerment equation. We then focus on playing a value-added role so that local entrepreneurs, leaders, and organizations (ones that we co create or simply support) can become empowered to “fill” these gaps in community empowerment. We neither pre-determine the right strategy nor the right “tool”. We simply ask ourselves, “Given what we have learned, how can we best take a social entrepreneurial approach and apply our core values in the most thoughtful way to help community members achieve their aspirations?” Read a summary of our accomplishments from 2016 here to get a better understanding of what this all looks like in action.
ability
(knowledge and skills)
means
(access to resources)
inspiration