OUR VISION AND VALUES
Our communities demand and deserve an approach to leadership development that centers liberation: one that nurtures people and relationships, lives at the crossroads of our urgent day-to-day needs and a visionary narrative of the future, and understands how our different struggles are bound up together.
Orienting ourselves toward this collective vision and embracing this core set of values means bringing the wealth of our 40-year history of working with leaders, nonprofit organizations, and movement networks more directly and intentionally into a tradition of resistance, joining forces with kindred spirits to turn the tide toward humanity and justice.
OUR BOLDEST VISION
We envision a world where the interlocking systems of white supremacy, patriarchy, and capitalism are broken, so that we can build a world where:
Self-determination and dignity are accessible for everyone.
People live with love. Truth, reconciliation, restorative justice, and healing become pathways to mutual flourishing.
We feel liberation in our souls and in our bones.
We envision a world that centers joy, where there is peace and safety, and where the ability to play and make art is not just a privilege or luxury for a select few.
We see a world where we honor the wisdom of elders and ancestors and where the importance of family
(chosen or through birth) is celebrated.
We see a future where there is justice and healing to reckon with genocide and slavery and where sacred ritual
connects us to purpose and to each other.
We see a world where we ensure choice and freedom over coercion and control; collaboration and regeneration
over domination and extraction.
In our vision for this future, the movements, organizations,
and individuals we work with are working
to transform the world together.
And this vision doesn’t belong to any one of us.
It belongs to all of us.
And our vision starts today.
HOW DO WE GET THERE?
This vision belongs to all of us—so what's CompassPoint's role? To achieve this vision, we work with social justice leaders, organizations, and movements to unleash their full potential for creating social change.
We pursue three core strategies:
We work with nonprofits that are committed to social justice.
We believe nonprofits are powerful vehicles for transformative social change. We collaborate with social justice leaders, nonprofits, and movements that fight for a just and equitable world.
We center leaders of color and white allies.
We design programs for leaders of color and white allies healing from and dismantling racism and oppression in themselves, their organizations, and in their communities.
We work toward liberation from the inside and out, and from the outside in.
We build structures, cultural practices, business strategies, and approaches to organizational change that bring us and the people we work with closer to liberation. We try on practices from the inside so we can share out what we’re learning. At the same time, we learn from ways that leaders outside our practice are living into liberation so we can bring new learning in, creating a cycle of mutual reflection, practice, and change.
OUR VALUES
RACIAL JUSTICE
We acknowledge and examine the way racism is central across social issues. We actively build a present (and strive for a future) where Black people, Brown people, and communities of color thrive physically, emotionally, spiritually, and psychologically.
SOLIDARITY
We recognize the interconnectedness and intersection of simultaneous struggles for marginalized communities across the spectrum of class, ability, sexual orientation, gender, cultural identities, religious affiliations, and race.
RADICAL IMAGINATION
We believe in the power of creating a collective vision for a liberated world free of oppression because we cannot build a more just world without having the courage to first imagine it.
PLACE + COMMUNITY
We honor the history, culture, strengths, and spirit of place. We are most effective by being deeply rooted in our own community and showing great humility and respect when entering another’s community.
ACCOUNTABILITY
When we make mistakes, we are accountable for learning from them, being truthful and transparent about what’s happened, and making change.
LEARNING + RIGOR
We only teach what we live. When we are learning another’s practice, we ask for correct process to truly embody the values and spirit that go along with the practice and ask permission before sharing it with others.
COLLABORATION
We believe the idea of “expertise” can be damaging. We partner shoulder to shoulder with the people we work with and acknowledge that true collaboration means everyone is learning and building power together.
HUMOR + JOY
We believe that the work of making the world a more liberated place isn’t sustainable without humor and joy. Humor helps us build the connections that power social transformation.
We strive to keep our values at the center of everything we do:
- Who we work with and how
- Cultural practices
- Our structure
- Voice and Presence
- Business Model
This vision and values statement was created by CompassPoint in 2017 as part of a Vision and Strategy process, with guidance and suport from co-LAB (Maura Bairley, Monica Dennis, Viveka Chen).
Read more about CompassPoint's
Vision and Strategy process here. >
JOIN OUR MAILING LIST
Free resources, upcoming classes, program announcements and more—straight to your inbox.