Mission
Our mission is to document the stories that highlight the plight of the most impoverished and vulnerable people on earth.
Vision
Our vision is to create a world where vulnerable people on the move are believed about their experiences, and are accepted and humanized; that their destination countries innately recognize their humanity and value, and can therefore better serve them so that they may become the additive members of society they aspire to be.
Values
Dignity
We believe in the dignity of the people we work with. We understand that we often meet the people in our community when they are in extreme states of distress, instability or transition which do not reflect who they truly are as individuals or how they see themselves; these precarious life moments are impermanent, their self-worth and individual spirits are not.
Connection
We believe in the power of human connection. We strive for it even in the face of strong cultural, religious or other differences, because we understand the commonality in our human experiences rank above all else; our ability to see one another equally is the measure of our human survival. We know a moment of connection can bring light to a dark day and inspire hope.
Trust + Respect
We hold our community’s stories in the highest regard, understanding they are always personal and vulnerable in nature. We respect each person’s experience. We value the trust we earn from everyone we work with, because with it they show us the truth we need to see in order to evolve as a society.
Empowerment
We believe in the power each person in our community has within them. While we will always be there to advocate for them, and to connect them with helpful resources as we are able, we know their most powerful gift is their own voice and sense of self—something no one can take from them. Our job is first and foremost to mirror back the light they shine so that they may remember this truth even when the world around them says otherwise.
Goals
Document – To document the stories of the people in the migrant community with compassion, and with a duty toward a more complete historical record; a kind of narrative record-keeping that is never evaluative of their testimony (in contrast to national immigration or asylum offices, for example), but supportive and authentic in its interest in it.
Advocate – To leverage this unique qualitative data to make change. In sync with board members and key support figures in policy, governance, partnering organizations, scholarship, media and more, our goal is to create humane, holistic change in global migration policy that supports the people in the stories we document and those in the community around them.
Preserve – To preserve our documentation in the Humanitarian Archives. The records of people on the move are valuable because they are so ephemeral. To capture and preserve the words, images, voices and more of the people in these fleeting moments in time creates an invaluable archive of information that can drive scholarship, inform diplomatic efforts, and construct a personal ancestral record for its participants that no one else has established in the same way.