In 2024, we approached our work as an act of love—love for the communities we serve, our partners, and the values we uphold: equity and justice, interdependence, dignity, and accountability. We centered our work in community practice, and this, in turn, informed all our other efforts.
We are excited and proud to share
Our 2024 Accomplishments with you, which are organized by our strategies:
- Community-centered Practice: Partnering with communities in support of community-driven change.
- Practitioner Knowledge & Skill Development: Strengthening practitioner capacity to achieve equitable health, safety, and wellbeing.
- Policy & Systems Transformation: Changing policies and systems to produce equitable health, safety, and wellbeing.
- Momentum Building: Strengthening a prevention and health equity ecosystem while shifting fields, norms, and narratives.
We also accomplished a lot internally in 2024. For the first time since January 2020, our entire staff came together in person, and we enjoyed several days of connecting, reconnecting, reflecting, and charting our path forward. We also continued to strengthen our financial systems, had another clean audit, enhanced our employee benefits package, and launched a staff training development program.
Near the end of 2024, our board and staff reaffirmed racial justice, prevention, and health equity—centered in community—as core to our work. We also asserted an affirmative vision of what communities truly need and deserve to realize health, safety, and wellbeing.
As we make our way through 2025, we will maintain our affirmative vision and pay attention to the Pillars of Wellbeing. Emerging out of our work with community partners, the Pillars of Wellbeing are the core stabilizing elements needed for people and communities to flourish emotionally. They are:
- BELONGING/CONNECTEDNESS – feeling part of a community; a sense of acceptance; belief that you are accepted as you are; having a place or group that is restorative or acts as a refuge
- SAFETY – experience of security: interpersonally, emotionally, and with one’s surroundings; possession of a sense of stability
- TRUST – belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of self and others; ability to count on the circumstances surrounding you
- DIGNITY–sense of one’s own value; quality of being worthy of honor and respect; living in a climate of mutual respect and regard for all
- HOPE/ASPIRATION – a reassuring belief that something better is possible and achievable; optimism that allows forward movement
- CONTROL OF DESTINY/SELF-DETERMINATION – sense of purpose; the ability to influence the events that shape life’s circum-stances; ability to make and take action; agency
A key characteristic of the Pillars of Wellbeing is that they interact with one another in a way that compounds their strength and influence on wellbeing. Importantly, they are experienced both personally and in the broader community environment. Pillars can activate resilience and contribute to healing for traumatized individuals and communities. In doing so, they facilitate an ability to navigate adversity.
No doubt the communities we serve, our cherished partners, and the values we uphold will face adversity in 2025. We will continue to act with love in partnership with you to face the barrage of challenges and work toward thriving, equitable communities.
We could not have achieved any of our accomplishments without the generous support of our funders, and we are truly grateful to all of you. As we navigate 2025, your support will be more essential than ever. We are also grateful to our partners and the communities that we work with and learn from.
