Our Guiding Principles

Shifting Power to Community

We believe in partnership with (not for) community.

To be successful, we must ground our efforts in the expressed needs of residents, youth, and our partners in Bridgeport.

Group of women and children standing together indoors, smiling for the photo.
Four women sitting at a round table with conference badges, notebooks, and a laptop in front of them, smiling at the camera. Several people are seated at tables in the background at a conference.

Collaboration

We use a collective impact model: no one organization or program can address the needs and aspirations of our community.

We need to support and advance the needs and health of community partner organizations.

Top-down view of a workspace with three people collaborating at a wooden table. The table has laptops, tablets, notebooks, pens, charts, coffee cups, a keyboard, and a computer monitor displaying graphs.

Equity

We believe in advancing racial and economic equity, while addressing the root causes of systemic and institutionalized racism.

Group of nine women standing together in a room with green walls and colorful abstract paintings.

Data

We value making data-informed decisions and believe in the power, promise, and value of the community’s lived experiences. There are three strategies that we use to approach the data.

  1. Build Protective Factors

  2. Promote Positive Childhood Experiences

  3. Start Early