Strategic Goals
We envision communities inspired by food and transformed by youth. The following 2022-2025 strategic goals guide Jones Valley Teaching Farm’s work.
EDUCATION
Using food as the foundation, Jones Valley Teaching Farm’s Good School Food pre-K-12 education model brings learning to life, inspiring youth through experiential and hands-on learning.
FARMING & FOOD RESILIENCY
Jones Valley Teaching Farm believes that when communities know how to grow, cook, and share their food for themselves and for others, we collectively build food-resilient, healthy, and connected communities.
ECONOMIC MOBILITY FOR YOUTH
Jones Valley Teaching Farm is committed to creating pathways for youth to achieve economic mobility. Through on-the-job training, we develop talent and connect youth to post-secondary education and career opportunities.
BUILDING COMMUNITY
Jones Valley Teaching Farm will position Birmingham as a national leader and model for food-based education, sustainable urban farming, youth economic mobility, and healthy food-resilient communities.
ORGANIZATIONAL HEALTH
Jones Valley Teaching Farm will foster a financially-healthy, well-governed, supportive, and sustainable organization to drive us toward successful attainment of our mission and vision.
Our Values
We value CENTERING YOUTH AND YOUNG ADULTS in our work. This looks like consistently asking “How does this decision benefit youth and young adults?” and using this question to drive programmatic, organizational, operational, and fundraising decisions across the
organization.
We value RADICAL CARE AND WELLBEING. This looks like prioritizing planning and caring for ourselves so that we have the capacity to thoughtfully care for others.
We value INCLUSIVITY. This looks like respecting different cultures, traditions, beliefs, languages, identities, genders, and lived experiences as we work together towards our collective mission.
We value CONTINUOUS LEARNING. This looks like acknowledging that we are all learners and taking the time for feedback, finding joy in trying new things, and asking “why not?” instead of “no way” or “I know.”
We value GROWTH. This looks like personally and professionally doing the best we can until we know better and when we know better, we commit to doing better.
We value TEAMWORK. This looks like looking for ways to support our colleagues and partners beyond our defined responsibilities, creating opportunities for building relationships and trust, and knowing our work is successful when we are working together and that each role within the
organization serves an integral purpose towards our mission.