Written by: Mobile Burrell
What Are Our Values?
At Silver Lining Mentoring (SLM), our staff team has identified the top five values which guide our journey as an organization: Commitment, Community, Innovation, Cultural Responsiveness, and Gratitude. These values are woven into the fabric of everything we do from the welcoming environment we create for all who walk through our doors (community), to the practice of identifying our community members by their preferred pronouns in respect of each person’s identity (cultural responsiveness).
These values also help to create a culture of learning and leadership at SLM, enhancing our capacity as a team to respond to the evolving needs of our youth in the context of the world in which they reside. The most recent learning opportunity in my own journey with SLM began on September 26th 2017 at my orientation for the Institute for Nonprofit Practice Community Fellows Program (CFP) .
The Institute for Nonprofit Practice (INP)
The Institute for Nonprofit Practice is committed to “…equipping the most promising nonprofit leaders with the skills, confidence, and resources they need to make their organizations effective, innovative, and sustainable.” The Community Fellows Program is geared toward “social justice oriented emerging leaders, with a focus on advancing people of color.”
As a program coordinator who moves through the world in dark brown skin and with other marginalized identities, a driving factor in the work I do is a desire for social equity and justice. My involvement in the INP CFP program has provided me with a whole new community of similarly driven young professionals working toward improving our organizations to maximize our impact. Along with this expanded network, I am benefiting from a learning collective exploring topics relevant to organizational sustainability; exposure to new approaches to our work; and access to additional learning opportunities such as workshops and lectures around the greater Boston area.
Sharing Learning for Serving Youth Better
While the benefits of the INP Community Fellows Program are already evident for me personally, the fruits of this program will continue to grow for Silver Lining Mentoring. Not only am I in the CFP program, a couple of our staff are alumni of The Institute and one other current staff is in the 2017-2018 Core Program, bringing even richer learning back to our team. Outside of The Institute of Nonprofit Practice, programming staff engage in ongoing learning opportunities from webinars on suicidality in youth, to conferences focused on critical relationships, trainings, and more in an effort to enhance the impact we have on youth impacted by foster care!
SLM values bringing out the best in its staff, mentors, youth, and larger community by providing and supporting learning & growth opportunities in many forms. We are committed to identifying ways we can ensure quality service to our youth, quality relationships with our larger Silver Lining Mentoring community, and quality performance from our team! With all of this learning, we hope to truly transform our impact into so much more than what we are already doing. How will you choose to be a part of that journey?
