TKF Mission Statement
Stopping kids from killing kids and breaking the cycle of youth violence by inspiring nonviolent choices and planting seeds of hope for our children's future.
Vision
TKF is an organization that provides violence prevention educational programs and services to youth nationwide. In partnership with community and educational partners, we cultivate new attitudes and behaviors by role modeling integrity, kindness, understanding, peace, forgiveness, compassion, and respect. TKF empowers and nurtures future leaders by inspiring young people to choose nonviolence. TKF cultivates and nurtures a generation of peacemakers who will create a world free from youth violence.
Core Values
The Core Values provide a living foundation on which to build TKF. Core Values are a guiding light used to illuminate our path. In difficult times and in difficult situations, Core Values provide guidance. At times, Core Values are tough to adhere to. At TKF, we help each other live by these standards in all that we do.
The Core Values of TKF are Integrity, Compassionate Confrontation, and Forgiveness.
Integrity: We behave with integrity. Integrity is defined as "soundness, incorruptibility and a firm adherence to a code of ethics." Our Integrity demonstrates the strengths and weaknesses in our character. People of integrity are honest and genuine in their dealings with others. People of integrity hold fast to their commitments rather than their desires. We make many commitments to TKF, to ourselves and to our community. At TKF, we understand that at times these commitments are in conflict. At these times of conflict, we work to remain steadfast to out true and deep commitments. We must bring these conflicts to the light and work with each other to resolve them. We strive to live a life of integrity.
Compassionate Confrontation:
We believe in compassionate confrontation in a context of peace
and respect. Confrontation is defined as "to bring face to face,
to cause to meet, a clashing of ideas. In the context of TKF, we believe
in confrontation that occurs with compassion in order to achieve a higher
understanding with mutually beneficial results. Compassionate confrontation
requires compassionate listening. We understand that compassionate confrontation
is a healthy ingredient to human interactions. Confrontation is honest.
Confrontation creates opportunities for change. We embrace compassionate
confrontation. We confront each other with a loving and compassionate intent.
Forgiveness: We
forgive others and seek forgiveness. Forgiveness is defined as "the
act of giving up resentment." At TKF, we see forgiveness as a process,
starting with the acknowledgement that we have been harmed. Through the
pain, we tap into the power of forgiveness, the release of resentment. Ultimately,
we reach out with love and compassion to the offender. We forgive others
when they have wronged us. We forgive others who have wronged someone else.
WE ask for our own forgiveness when we have wronged others. We will not
harbor feelings of resentment after forgiveness. We acknowledge that we
are all human and at times will fail in forgiveness. We help each other
to forgive, to accept forgiveness and to accept each other through the process.
We strive to forgive.