Our mission is to build and use power through community organizing, leadership development, and advocacy campaigns with Waterbury students and youth to fight for racial equity and social justice in our schools and community. Our mission is to challenge systems of oppression by advocating for culturally competent educational practices. Therefore, we believe the most effective way to triumph over systemic forms of oppression is to have an educational system that serves the historically underserved and underrepresented. This can only be accomplished if we advocate for an educational system that is positioned to provide culturally competent school professionals and curriculum, human services, and disciplinary policies, which combat: generational poverty, achievement gaps, implicit and explicit biases towards race, ethnicity and gender. Strategically we will work with three groups: parents and students, school professionals, and legislators. We will work independently to highlight research on current educational dilemmas that increase the achievement gap, speed up the school to prison pipeline, and worsen the economic welfare of families in our community. Our goal is to be a community partner that closes the conceptual gaps between problems and solutions. Therefore, we will participate in and host community events that heighten awareness of the educational dilemmas in our community. Finally, as advocates, we will target laws and policies, policy makers, and legislators that influence the educational experience. Our vision requires:
1. An increased community response to educational dilemmas
2. An increased willingness by school professionals to examine implicit and explicit biases through carefully planned and executed professional development
3. Increased support by organized labor for minority teacher recruitment
4. Non-partisan political support for mandates that are student centric
