Statement of Values
At the Table’s work is guided by the ten deeply-held commitments that make up our Statement of Values. Together, they lay out our vision for the kind of educational programming that we think should be available not just to people who have experienced foster care, but to every learner, everywhere. If you are a student with At the Table, we will be accountable to these values in all of our interactions with you.
We work in partnership with our students to achieve their goals. We believe that, to be effective, we must center the priorities of our students, identifying and elevating their goals for themselves rather than substituting or imposing our own.
We believe that students are intrinsically motivated to learn, grow, and succeed. We therefore believe that punitive consequences are unnecessary and often counterproductive, and reject their use in educational programming.
We believe that every student deserves our support. We do not require any student to demonstrate their worth - via their academic performance, demeanor, or otherwise - in order for us to work with them. Further, we reject educational models that value and resource students based on their compliance.
We value our students’ identities, beliefs, and cultures. We reject educational policies and practices that are premised on the idea that our students need to be fixed. We see the strengths in our students and know that an equitable system would not require them to compromise essential parts of themselves or meet a higher standard than their more privileged peers in order to succeed.
We acknowledge the role of structural oppression in our students’ lives. Our work is informed by our students’ experiences with institutional racism and systems that limit their access to education and economic mobility, repeat traumatic incidents, and perpetuate stereotypes of youth in foster care. We believe it will take a collective effort to address the injustices embedded in education and child welfare, and we are committed to partnering with other organizations aligned with this cause.
We believe that education is not limited to school curriculum and course content. We aim to build our students’ critical thinking, information literacy, self-advocacy and self-organization skills and believe it is our responsibility to help them recognize and break down the structural barriers they face in accessing a good education. We intentionally cultivate these skills in our work with students and strive to become obsolete in the face of their growing ability to access information and advocate for their own interests.
We see our students as whole people. We make space for their non-academic needs and goals, recognizing that education is one component of our students’ long-term thriving. We intentionally seek out and build partnerships with other organizations that can bring value to our students beyond the realm of education.
We make long-term commitments to our students. We recognize the importance of consistent, stable relationships in promoting student success and well-being. We do not eject students from our programs because they are struggling, and we work hard to avoid reassigning students to new staff wherever possible.
We believe that young people in foster care should not be forced to choose between permanency and educational support. We are committed to working with young people who have left foster care and to bridging the resource gaps that they experience.
We are committed to recruiting board members who have experienced foster care. We believe that organizations should be led by the communities they serve, and that a board that shares direct experiences with the people they support will be more effective and more impactful. We advocate for other organizations to adopt this model of board composition.