A Legacy of Strengths-Based Programming

Since 1971, Positive Education Program has been building on the strengths of children and families using a whole-child, trauma-informed, relationship-centered approach. We have grounded this work in a strengths-based philosophy known as Re-ED, which emphasizes therapeutic environments where relationships help build resilience. What initially began as a consulting organization has continually evolved to provide services to meet the needs of the community and its youth.

Today our areas of specialty include consultation and training, mental health, early childhood, autism, and community-based care coordination.

Developing a New Strategic Framework: The Process

As we approached our 50th anniversary, PEP launched the planning process to develop a new strategic framework. We wondered if there was a way to make our work even more impactful and help even more young people.

We began by gathering feedback from the PEP community. Dozens of interviews and focus groups helped us better understand what our strengths are, how we are perceived by our partners, the needs of the community, and how PEP might meet its goal of helping even more young people. Those providing feedback included staff and board members, youth and families, hospitals, school districts, leaders from county government, and other community partners.

The stakeholder feedback was invaluable and helped shape the direction of our planning. The information was extensive, but several key themes arose again and again. Most commonly we heard:

  • The community values PEP for its unique expertise.
  • There are many opportunities in the community for strategic partnership.
  • Children’s mental health is reaching a crisis level.
  • Promoting equity is essential.

A New Strategic Framework: Our Objectives

We relied on the feedback from our community partners to develop the specifics of a new strategic framework. Based on what we learned in the planning process, we knew it was important to focus on three key areas:

  • Optimizing our existing programs and services,
  • Innovating new programs and services,
  • Establishing a flourishing workplace.

Because our world is complex and ever-changing, we understand that our framework must be flexible. It must be able to grow and change to meet new challenges or needs as they arise. To help us understand when change is needed, we will measure our results, regularly monitoring our effectiveness, employee engagement, and equity.

Mission, Vision, and Values

PEP’s mission, vision, and values reflect our hopes and dreams for the young people we serve and will guide every aspect of our work.

MISSION:  Supporting young people to overcome and thrive.

VISION:  An equitable community where every young person is valued and experiences joy and deep fulfillment.

VALUES

  • Joy: We have fun and laugh, delighting in our shared purpose of supporting one another to overcome and thrive.
  • Heart: We build relationships of mutual respect and honor our shared love for humanity, exercising grace, empathy, and compassion.
  • Integrity: We are accountable to our commitments, our legacy and our future and use our organizational privilege as a skill for positive impact.
  • Aspiration: We challenge and support each other to innovate so we can achieve meaningful growth and change, believing in our collective potential.
  • Courage: We persevere in the face of the challenges inherent in breaking down barriers, dismantling racism, and creating equity.

Our North Star

As we carry out our work and live our mission, vision, and values, we do so with an unwavering focus on our North Star: That all young people thrive in their school, home, and community environments.

PEP’s strategic framework continues to build on our trauma-informed core, established at our founding with the principles of Re-ED. Anti-racism is key to our trauma-informed philosophy. To be truly trauma-informed, to understand the young people and families with whom we work, and to help them heal and grow, we must be aware of and sensitive to the generational racism that has shaped their reality.

 

Learn More

To learn more about PEP and our new strategic framework, visit our website or check out a video of PEP’s CEO, Habeebah R. Grimes, discussing it below.