MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR
INTRODUCTION
On behalf of the Board of Directors of Big Brothers of Greater Vancouver (BBGV), I am very proud to introduce the new Strategic Plan for the years 2020 to 2025. This plan is the result of many hours of effort on the part of Board Directors and myself under the conscientious leadership of Gerry Egan, Strategic Planning Task Force Chair. The committee was supported by Valerie Lambert, Executive Director and her capable staff. Our process was facilitated by Joanna Whalley who brought her vast experience to the table to help us distill and clarify our thoughts. I would like in particular to call out the efforts of Rose Higgins, Manager - Research, Inclusion, and Strategy, who worked tirelessly to support our task force and to keep us on track. Shortly after we began this work, it became apparent that we were on the verge of a pandemic of uncertain duration and severity. I particularly appreciate the efforts of the team in completing this work on time, notwithstanding the upheaval in the world. The pandemic helped us find our voice as we recognized the importance of serving young people for whom many social outlets had ceased. The Black Lives Matter movement also helped highlight the importance of our Equity, Diversity and Inclusion and anti-racism work, which will form a large part of our program focus going forward. The Committee began by reviewing the vision, mission and values of the organization to ensure they sufficiently inform and inspire our future direction. Our new vision and mission reflect the strength-based nature of our programming.
Our vision is: All children and youth are empowered to reach their full potential through mentorship.
Our mission is: Enable impactful mentoring relationships where children and youth can discover their power and potential, in collaboration with our local communities. There is also a renewed focus on the fact that supporting children and youth is very much a community-based and collaborative effort. The mission reflects the holistic nature of child and youth development and expresses the essential need for mentorship in the formative years. As a Board, we participated in and endorsed the values of safety, collaboration, community, inclusivity and mentorship. These have changed somewhat from the organization’s previous values. The new values resonated with our entire staff, who participated in our process.
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