Horizons’ Commitments

Horizons for Homeless Children’s Board of Directors’ Commitment Statement

Horizons has served the needs of children and families experiencing homelessness for over 30 years with early education and comprehensive family support services in Boston and access to play for children and families across the state. As a community, we both collectively and individually know that to deliver the best possible services to our families and create the optimal environment for all members of our Board and organization, we must actively work to ensure we set the standard for a culture that is welcoming to all. As an organization we commit to:

• Ensure the organization and its executive leadership, staff, volunteers, and donors faithfully represent the families and children we serve and the state in which we live.
• Create an environment where all members of our community (staff, children, families, and volunteers) feel safe, empowered, valued, and heard when engaging within the community.
• Promote an environment that treats all children and families we serve and members of our community with respect, empathy, and curiosity, focusing on our collective strengths.
• Commit to actively seek learning opportunities that allow us to understand the needs of our community members.
• Celebrate and value differences of opinion and thought, foster an environment that encourages tough questions, and support open and respectful conversations.
• Commit to Horizons continually refining its curriculum to better serve our children and families.
• Ensure the Board’s policies, procedures, recruitment, Board management and onboarding of new Board members reflect these commitments and align with industry best practices and applicable law.

Board of Directors’ Strategic Objectives

The Board of Directors has identified the following goals that reflect the objectives set out by their commitment statement.

• Collect data annually (surveys, focus groups, etc.) both at the Board and organizational level to develop a clear understanding of issues and opportunities to improve employee and board engagement and impact.
• Annually review Board makeup to identify and address any gaps in skills, capacity, and community representation.
• Actively encourage board members to help source and retain Board and other volunteer prospects by building networking relationships that support our objectives.
• Monitor progress of the Board and the organization as they identify opportunities to advance employee and board engagement.