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Posted September 30, 2005


Contact: Matt Kelley, Founder/President

MAVIN FOUNDATION ANNOUCES NEW MISSION WITH AN EMPHASIS ON "BUILDING HEALTHY COMMUNITIES"

(Seattle) Last week, MAVIN announced a 15-week roll-out of exciting organizational news, as part of our organizational assessment and strategic planning process.

Since an organization's mission statement is the arbiter against which all its activities are measured, it should accurately reflect the organization's essence and priorities. After considerable discussion and input, we are excited to announce our new mission statement:

MAVIN Foundation builds healthy communities that celebrate and empower mixed heritage people and families.

Now, let's dissect it!

This simple statement reflects the Board and staff's opinion that a healthy community for mixed heritage and transracially adopted people requires an active process of networking individuals and developing a solid infrastructure. A community's health can be measured in many ways, including its physical, mental and structural integrity.

In addition, the plural "communities" reflects MAVIN's commitment to supporting the myriad ethnic and affinity communities that our members also claim. "We don't see our work in isolation from the social and racial justice efforts of other organizations," says MAVIN founder/president Matt Kelley. "We will continue to work with them to ensure that we are advocates for each other." MAVIN Foundation's new Community MAP project already works with a diverse cross-section of communities to develop infrastructure that supports mixed heritage people and families.

When choosing the verbs that would best honor MAVIN's history and future plans, Alfredo Padilla, project manager for MAVIN's Campus Awareness+Compliance Initiative, summed up his priorities for the mission, "It's important that MAVIN's mission makes people feel good about our community and about their personal identification. I want it to convey a feeling of joy and excitement."

MAVIN has a long history of creating community by celebrating mixed experiences through our magazine and events. We also have developed a track record of empowering our constituency through skills-building student retreats, our internship program, and through our efforts to change data collection techniques that require us to "mark only one race." Our advocacy efforts in front of Congress and through the media has also empowered our constituency. The Board and staff felt that both words played a critical role in building healthy communities.

Finally, the new mission statement replaces "mixed race" with "mixed heritage." This reflects our desire to employ inclusive language that better reflected the diversity of multiracial, multiethnic, and transracial adoption experiences.

Of course, a mission statement is just words that rely on action and results to back it up. Consistent with our track record of results, however, MAVIN Foundation is 100% committed to building communities that celebrate and empower mixed heritage people and families! We look forward to working with you to make this a reality!

For more information, contact Matt here or call 206 622 7101.