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In recognition and acknowledgement of the resilience and authenticity of the communities accessing TAPS, we hope the following serves as both an identifier and ongoing reminder of our obligations to, and place within, the community. We hope the following can be a catalyst for meaningful trust-building, new and strengthened connections, and a deepened understanding of who we are as an organization.   
 

Together Against Poverty Society, as a collective and as an organization aspires to uphold and imbed these values and orientations in our practice:

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• To grow and uphold our ability to engage in anti-oppressive and decolonizing work 

• To hold a dual purpose: to be service-oriented; and social change-focused 

• To expand our capacity to engage, to organize, to plan and to build with the community

• To be clear, transparent, responsive and accountable to our role within the community as an anti-poverty organization 

• To authentically work to build trust - to listen hard, to learn and unlearn, and actively reflect 

• To understand that we perpetuate and benefit from colonial systems 

• To carry with us the knowledge and limitations of our identities and to understand our varying degrees of proximity to the work  

• To acknowledge we cannot understand the depth and complexities of other’s stories and to always position ourselves as learners

• To leverage our knowledge and abilities to challenge inequalities and injustices

• To work in solidarity, to be an ally, and to uphold confidentiality and dignity 

• To lean into and seek critical feedback in order to be accountable and active in mitigating harm  

• To acknowledge the endurance and resourcefulness of persons with lived experience of homelesness and poverty

• To welcome and work to ensure space for diversity of thought, perspectives, positionalities and histories