Henry Street Releases Values Statement
By Henry Street Settlement
We know we can’t bottle the special sauce that makes Henry Street unique—the deeply held values of our diverse and dedicated team. But, we did our best to put them into words. Over the past two years, all of our teams contributed to a statement of our organizational values, and we’re pleased to share them with you here.
The goal of identifying Henry Street’s values is to communicate our highest aspirations, inspire our team, and give prospective employees and the public a strong sense of what we believe it. Throughout, we asked ourselves, What principles fuel our work? What motivates us to provide the best quality services? How can these values both describe us and challenge us to do better?
Though no list could ever express the depth of feeling, commitment, and activity that have carried Henry Street through 130 years of history, these themes inspire us to provide outstanding service to our community and guide us into our collective future.
We are guided by our Community.
- We seek opportunities to listen, reflect, and act to meet the most pressing needs of our community and team members. We put our participants front and center.
We strive to make a positive Impact.
- Our work is mission-driven: Whether on the frontlines or behind the scenes, we work toward opening doors of opportunity, always assessing the results of our work, making improvements wherever possible, and approaching challenges with creativity and flexibility.
We Care for each other.
- We treat one another with care, grace, and compassion; support one another; and strive to overcome biases. We purposely seek avenues of inclusion, access, and equity for members of our team and community members who have experienced bias or discrimination. We are all Henry Streeters.
We act with Integrity.
- We strive to be honest, authentic, transparent, trustful, and respectful to each other and to our community. We show how much we value one another by being candid, including with our praise and constructive feedback.
We believe in the power of Collaboration.
- We are better together. We seek knowledge of Henry Street’s programs outside of our own departments so that we can proactively collaborate across the agency to meet the full range of our participants’ needs and take action as problem solvers.
We are Passionate about our work.
- We are proud of what we do. We are fully present and ready to step up, lending a hand whenever needed, and going above and beyond on behalf of those we serve.
We are informed by our History.
- In the spirit of our founder, Lillian Wald, we strive to follow the ethics she represented: to uphold human dignity; to uplift diversity in areas of culture, race, gender expression, and disability; and to keep a service mindset.
