On December 8, 2015, Sacramento ACEs Connection came together to begin the process of developing a shared mission, vision, and set of guiding principles that will help provide focus and direction to the group’s future collaborative strategies and activities. 13 ACEs partners were in attendance, with the overall objective of understanding the core values for each individual, so that we could better understand the values that would drive us as a group.
At the beginning of our discussion, we asked participants to find a partner, and ask him or her the basic question, “What infuriates you about your work dealing with Adverse Childhood Experience?” Participants were then expected to introduce their partners, and explain their partner's response to the question. Responses varied, but all the participants explained solid reasons for their partner’s dissatisfaction with the challenges associated with the impacts of childhood adversity
Our next step was to have participants get back into their groups to engage in an exercise designed to help identify their respective core value associated with their feelings about the first question. Participants were pushed to dig deep and continue to ask their partners penetrating questions in order to uncover their personal core values. After some additional prodding (both by partners, and the facilitator), here were some key terms our participants agreed upon:
- Constituent Engagement
- Connection
- Acceptance
- Awareness
- Empathy
- Empowerment
- Safety
- Protecting Children
- Respectful and Loving Relationships
- Social Justice
- Trust
- Equity
- Agency
- Fairness
- Equality
Coming to a conclusion about a shared vision, mission, and value system is no easy task. It usually takes multiple meetings for a group to develop and agree upon mission and vision, and to fully understand the most important aspects about working as a team. Many groups who try to organize often find their groups disbanding at the first sign of conflict, because they have neglected one or all of the steps it takes to understand that which really matters to its members. I’m very proud of Sacramento ACEs Connection for recognizing the important steps in creating a movement that fosters not only teambuilding and collective impact, but also takes into account the most important values of its contributing members. We very much look forward to our January ACEs Connection meeting, where we will continue our deep dive into core values, and begin to analyze group strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
ACEs Connection Timeline
- January: Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, Threats Analysis
- February: Visioning exercise/review of guiding principles, and sample mission statements
- March: Final review of mission vision and goals
By Imani Lucas
Health Education Council
Program Director
Sacramento Minority Youth Violence Prevention Collective
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