Mission Statement
Our mission is to advocate for excellence and equity in Ithaca’s public schools, by developing strategic community relationships, programs, and services to ensure that students, particularly Black, Latino, and low-income students, consistently meet or exceed local and New York State standards of achievement.
Description
Because it takes a village to raise, educate, and affirm a child...
We connect people with existing resources. Ithaca is rich in resources, but often services are not utilized by people who can benefit the most from them. The Village is a kind of switchboard, connecting youth and families with existing services that can support them. This requires outreach within the communities we serve, as well as a familiarity with local services.
We collaborate to improve systems. On a systemic level, we help the Ithaca City School District (ICSD) be accountable to its own goal of eliminating race and class as predictors of academic success. The Equity Report Card is one example of this collaboration. We are also helping the district be successful at hiring and retaining a staff that reflects the true diversity of the student body. We also help educate the community at large about the benefits of a truly equitable educational system.
We create new services and programs. Despite the abundance of existing programs, the Village also identifies areas where unmet needs exist and, in collaboration with others, addresses them.
