Our Values!

There are many things that contribute to great leadership and success of an organization or a project. Having a clear set of values that we can embrace and uphold is one of many keys to success. As such these are the values that RCPS embraces and upholds to ensure our success and to fulfill our mission and the services that we provide to our community.

Compassion & Kindness

Our Behavior:

How we define compassion and kindness - Compassion is having awareness and empathy of the pain and suffering of ourselves and others. Kindness is the willingness and courage to support others and help ease their pain and suffering in whatever capacity and scope that we are able.

We recognise and acknowledge the pain and suffering of others, and we take action to help alleviate and ease that pain in what capacities and forms we are able. We let people know that we care about them, their wellness, and their recovery. We validate peoples' experiences and feelings, whether they are challenging and painful or they are joyous and warm. while speaking with others we actively listen and make honest efforts in trying to understand them and their needs. We offer and provide what supports are most effective for each individual to achieve their own wellness and recovery.

We have compassion and kindness for ourselves by engaging in self-care and community care practices so that we can better support those that we work with.

Lastly, we aim to be a safe space to be ourselves (violence and discrimination aside) where we can be open and willing to talk about difficult subjects, share our darkest and most painful feelings and experiences, and support each other every step of the way.

Accountability

Our behavior:

How we define accountability - Being open and honest about our actions, intent, and behaviors, owning our mistakes and failures, and the willingness to correct them.

We hold ourselves accountable for all that we do; whether we succeed in our tasks and goals, or we fail at them. We remain as transparent as we can be with our goals, intentions, and our actions as this will help us build trust with ourselves, our clients, and our communities. We are open to feedback whether it be pleasant or critical, and we take action to correct our mistakes and to improve ourselves where we are able.

Effective communication and intent. When we ask others to do something or to contribute to a project or goal, we need to be very explicit in what it is we want to achieve, how we want to achieve it, and why. Embracing effective communication includes active listening skills which are paying attention to one another when speaking, withholding judgement and reflecting on the words being said, understanding what is being said and clarifying what you don't understand. Lastly, we retain the information that we learn from conversations and activities so we can achieve our goals and objectives.

Receiving and Responding to Feedback. It is important that we listen to feedback whether it is positive, or it is critical, and equally it important that we acknowledge and validate the feedback we are given. We then reflect and evaluate the feedback we receive and work to incorporate the feedback in our behaviors and actions to improve ourselves and the work we do with our clients and the community.

Respect (Implicit and Mutual)

Our Behavior:

How we define respect - Having mindfulness and consideration and understanding of a person and all that encompasses who they are.

We meet people where they are at, and not where we want or expect them to be.

We respect ourselves by understanding our own needs and advocating for them. Likewise, we respect others' needs and support them in their journey in getting their needs met.

We respect ourselves by understanding our own limitations and boundaries and being honest and upfront about them. Likewise, we respect other peoples' limitations and boundaries and encourage them to be honest and upfront about them.

This includes respecting each other, regardless of our differences in backgrounds, cultures, identities and coming together to support our mission and provide support to those that we work with. This also means that we are a diverse and inclusive organization.

We respect one another by building and maintaining trust.

Equity

Our Behavior:

How we define equity - Broadly, the fair and considerate treatment of people, things, ideas, concepts, and systems.

In the scope of our organization and work we believe that equity is more specifically defined as treating people (and such) as unique individuals that need curated and specific methods, tools, and resources that provide genuine benefit and success for each individual. This differs from equality, where people are treated equally (not as unique individuals) and are provided the same methods, tools, and resources with the hope that they will all receive the same benefits and success from using them. What works for some does not necessarily work for everyone, However, we believe that equality also means including everyone, and as an organization we care about everyone's' wellness and recovery.

We actively work to provide equitable systems of peer mental health support for our clients and our community. We do this by getting to know our clients and the others we work with as unique individuals and as organizations and learn what does and doesn't work in terms of support, treatment, and care. We curate our programs and services to provide the most benefit and success for each individual. We as an organization and as peer mental health providers also adapt and change as needed for the benefit of our clients and our community.

Solidarity (Collaboration and Teamwork)

Our behavior:

How we define solidarity (collaboration and teamwork) - We believe that collaboration is the free and open exchange of ideas, tools, and resources that are of benefit to others and the community. We believe that teamwork is the desire and action to work together as a group or in groups to achieve specific goals. Solidarity is coming together in support of mutual goals and interests and collaborating and working together to achieve those goals.

We believe that ideas, tools, and resources that are available, that provide benefit to people and the community to aid and help in their mental health wellness and recovery should not be hoarded, be kept secretive or inaccessible, or guarded by fears of intellectual property rights or for profit.

We, as an organization, actively work in solidarity, "together" internally, and within our communities to share our ideas, tools, and resources to the public so that we can eliminate barriers for access, so that we can eliminate mental health stigma, and so ultimately, we can provide the most effective support and care to those needing it.

Hope

Our Behavior:

How we define hope - the belief that change is possible and the desire for a specific outcome.

We have hope that we can find success in our wellness and recovery.

We have hope that we can support each other.

We have hope that we can create equitable and sustainable systems of mental health peer support.

We hope that we can eliminate and erase mental health stigma.

We hope that we can increase the accessibility of mental health support for those needing it.

Justice

Our Behavior:

How we define justice - like equity, in the broadest sense justice is the fair, appropriate, and considerate treatment of people, things, ideas, concepts, and systems.

In the scope of our organization and work we believe that justice is more specifically defined as being the act of advocating and taking action to ensure that equity is applied toward people.

We actively work to provide mental health justice to our clients and the community by advocating for equitable and accessible those that treatment and practices by other organizations, agencies, law enforcement, the legal (criminal and judicial) system, and other systems and institutions. We work to dismantle inequitable systems and institutions, while also working to change laws that are inequitable and those that detrimentally cause harm to individuals and groups, to laws that are equitable to individuals and groups.