A Mission Statement for WMWP
The Western Massachusetts Writing Project has been working on crafting a mission statement for the organization that will represent not only who we are as an organization, but also who we will become as we move into the future. This work has been helped along by the leaders of Project Outreach by providing a lens to look at our site and our work along the lines of social justice, race, gender and equity issues.
This week, the WMWP Executive Board adopted the new mission statement for our organization and the board believes that the statement not only documents the role that we play in the Pioneer Valley and beyond, but also maps out a vision for the future of the organization.
Here is the new WMWP Mission Statement:
“The mission of the Western Massachusetts Writing Project, a local site of the National Writing Project, is to create a professional community where teachers and other educators feel welcomed to come together to deepen individual and collective experiences as writers and our understanding of teaching and learning in order to challenge and transform our practice. Our aim is to improve learning in our schools — urban, rural and suburban.
Professional development provided by the Western Massachusetts Writing Project values reflection and inquiry and is built on teacher knowledge, expertise and leadership.
Central to our mission is the development of programs and opportunities that are accessible and relevant to teachers, students and their families from diverse backgrounds, paying attention to issues of race, gender, language, class and culture and how these are linked to teaching and learning.”
Using a site called Wordle, which transforms text into word clouds, Technology Liaison Kevin Hodgson created this image of our mission statement. Notice how learning and writing are so prominent in the mix.
What do you think of the mission statement? Does it reflect your values and your vision of the Western Massachusetts Writing Project? We invite you to leave comments and thoughts here at this blog post. To do so, just click on the link for comments just above this post.
June 17th, 2008 at 5:51 am
What I like about this mission statement is that it invites an inquiry stance and sets forth an ideal role for our organization. The document, if it can be instilled in all that we do, is a powerful statement of purpose for us. It acknowledges and supports the role that teachers play in making the world a better place for all.
– Kevin
June 17th, 2008 at 7:57 am
I agree, Kevin. The mission statement reflects a valuable collaborative year long process of working to identify core values, ones that matter to us. It provides a guide for our inquiries and actions.
I remember meeting with Dawn last July soon after she and others of the Project Outreach Team had returned from an NWP meeting. She said that they wanted to engage the Executive Board and others in looking at and likely revising our mission statement in light of Project Outreach goals. I said I didn’t think WMWP had a mission statement. We didn’t. When we began the process last September, I don’t think any of us knew what the result would look like. Thanks to the leadership of the Project Outreach Team in engaging the larger group of us in deep inquiry and drafting, we know have our mission. It’s a very important outcome of the year, something we can feel proud of; something that draws us together; something that will guide us.
Anne
June 17th, 2008 at 6:26 pm
I am very pleased too. I think the mission statement makes transparent what we are about. It has been floating around us for a while. It feels good to have it grounded in a collaboratively crafted document that is inclusive and clear. Now we can look at what we do through a sharper lens. As we approach the Summer Institute I look forward to sharing this with our new fellows. I am sure our conversations will be richer for it.
Mary
July 16th, 2008 at 1:15 pm
I think it is amazing how the mission statement and the process of creating it has already begun to infiltrate and inform our other work, just as we had hoped. We really kept our mission statement front and center this week, as a group of four of us from our site created a plan to explore content area literacy at our site, as part of the National Reading Initiatives, Content Area Literacy Institute. Also, folks loved our mission statement as we posted it front in center in a presentation we had to do to introduce our site. Everyone especially loved the word scatter visual. I’d really love to see this as our new t-shirt design, with Western Massachusetts Writing Project across the top in bold, blocky letters. I forget who first suggested this, but I don’t want to let go of the idea.
Thanks.