Mission & Core Values

Our Mission

Coleman Advocates for Children and Youth is a member-led, multi-racial community organization working to create a city of hope, opportunity, and justice for all children and all families in San Francisco.

Our Core Values

  1. “Nothing ABOUT Us WITHOUT Us is FOR Us”. We believe that the people most impacted by a problem must be the ones who determine and fight for the solutions.
  2. Children and youth first.
  3. We believe in the power of grassroots organizing and the importance of winning policy campaigns that create lasting change in our communities.  We make change through membership base-building, leadership development, community building, political education, and member-led school-site, city budget and policy campaigns.
  4. We believe that the human rights and dignity of all people should be respected and affirmed, including people of all ages, races, ethnic and national backgrounds, religions, sexual orientations, immigration status, native languages, disability levels, and economic backgrounds.
  5. We believe that all children have a right to have their basic needs met, to be educated and prepared for full participation in society, and that it is the responsibility of government to ensure that these rights are fully realized.
  6. We believe in inter-generational organizing, with young people at the center, to strengthen our communities.
  7. We believe that economic inequality, persistent poverty, and structural racism are the major barriers to meeting the needs of families and children.
  8. We believe that our strength comes from the unity of our members, families and communities.
  9. We believe that Coleman should be reflective of and accountable to our diverse constituency.
  10. We believe that we must form strategic alliances with other community organizations to build a movement capable of winning long term, systemic social change because we cannot achieve our vision alone.