Our Guiding Principles

We are always advocates:

• Transformative: We strongly believe that integrating a world-changing approach into all areas of our work is essential to ending domestic violence and human trafficking. We do this with our clients, through individualized collaboration; in the community, through teen prevention and adult education; and on an institutional level, through legislative and public policy work.

We are client-centered:

• Trauma-informed: We acknowledge that trauma looks different for every person. We view each client as an autonomous individual with varied experiences and a complex spectrum of needs that we approach in multiple ways.
• Compassionate: We support clients’ decisions about their lives with empathy and without judgement, and honor their stories.
• Safety: We are committed to maximizing our clients’ physical and emotional safety, through shelter, safety planning, and legal resources.

We act with integrity:

• High Quality of Client Care: We aspire to the highest standards of service, best professional practices, and ongoing education. We are accountable to do what we say we are going to do.
• Confidential: We safeguard information entrusted to us by our clients and honor their decisions about what and when to share.
• Ethical: We act honorably and ethically at all times and put the client first, even when navigating challenging situations.
• Open-minded: We are not tied to one particular outcome. With humility, we recognize that we might not be right all the time, and we listen attentively and inquisitively.

We are collaborative:

• Innovation: We continually re-envision strategies to help our clients surmount individual and systemic obstacles and maximize our impact despite limited resources.
• Partnership: We partner with our clients and MSP colleagues across departments and roles to coordinate services and incorporate interdisciplinary perspectives.
• Resourcefulness: We creatively identify potential allies and nurture relationships with other governmental and non-governmental local, state, and federal agencies.

We are anti-oppression:
MSP believes in the equality of all people. We recognize that our clients come to us while navigating different structural and social injustices that affect their experiences of survivorship. We also understand that this work requires an ongoing commitment to developing the language and tools we need to undo institutional oppression.

• Anti-racist: We are committed to understanding and addressing how systemic racism, including internal and external policies, impacts our clients’ lives.
• Anti-heterosexist: We reject gender-stereotyped roles that produce inequality in relationships. We serve individuals of all genders, sexual orientations, and gender identities.
• Anti-ableist: We recognize the unique barriers and vulnerabilities faced by survivors with physical and emotional disabilities and offer a consistent standard of care for all our clients.
• Anti-classist: Violence impacts people from all socioeconomic backgrounds. We reject the idea that poverty is the cause of violence or that affluence can prevent it. Our services are available and free for everyone.
• Pro-immigrant: MSP stands with immigrant survivors, and provides services and advocacy regardless of country of origin or immigration status.
• Pro-language access: We provide services in the preferred language of each client.

 

Download printable versions of our mission and guiding principles in English and Spanish.