Resolutions for the New Year: Community over Disunity
The start of a new year is a time for resolutions. Defying the temptation to hunker down in this cold and dark season, the beginning of January is a time to take stock and to look forward with clear priorities and renewed optimism. The beginning of 2017 feels different.
Inequality and its resulting disunity define our times. As the divides in our society between rich and poor, majority and minority, and Republican and Democrat grow wider and more evident, the common purposes and values which bind us together are pushed to the fringes. Our comforting certainty that humankind's better angels are continuing their slow and steady if fitful progress is deeply shaken. Globally, nationally and locally, people are feeling very uneasy.
For The Community Foundation, this feeling strikes at the heart of who we are and what we do. The Foundation stands for community over disunity and for generosity and caring over resentment and scapegoating. As we look forward to 2017, we believe that these core values may well be tested by events far beyond Greater New Haven. The Foundation also believes that our community will be equal to its challenges, and we are resolved to play our part in the coming year.
We believe that: |
We resolve: |
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| the strength of our community is defined by our unusually strong connections to one another, connections that transcend differences of race, ethnicity, geography and socio-economic status | to promote understanding and empathy among the peoples of Greater New Haven so as to continue to strengthen our community connections | |
| the promise of opportunity for tomorrow can be an antidote to the inequality of today | to promote a new vision of economic growth and education in Greater New Haven that creates opportunities for the next generation in our community in the growth industries of our future | |
| that political change and continuing dysfunction at the national level together with recurrent State budget crises will mean that progress will best be made through action at the local community level | to play a role in advancing key policy issues in partnership with leading public and private sector institutions in our region | |
| that local nonprofit organizations and committed local donors will be responding to the new challenges of 2017 in their own very innovative and effective ways | to listen to them and to partner with them to help our community move forward | |
May 2017 be a year in which our community builds on its historic strengths, comes together in new ways, and shines a light of cohesion and progress into the national gloom of disunity and uncertainty.
