The statements below have been developed through a collaborative process with Department employees, leadership, and other stakeholders.
Vision: Empowered people thriving in safe, just, and caring communities.
Mission: Provide access to effective, innovative, and evidence-based services and resources that support wellbeing, opportunities to thrive, safety, and justice to persons of all backgrounds.
DCDHS VALUE STATEMENTS
ACCOUNTABILITY AND TRANSPARENCY: We are stewards of public resources. We commit to the evaluation and review of our services and programs. We will be as transparent as possible through open communication within our own organization, with our partners, and with the communities we serve.
COLLABORATION: We commit to building collaborative, inclusive, and informed relationships with staff, clients, partners, and the larger community to foster trust, respect, and effective partnerships across all programs and services.
RACIAL JUSTICE: We commit to pursuing racial justice through institutional change to actively dismantle policies, practices, messages, and attitudes that both perpetuate and fail to eliminate racism and differential outcomes by race.
DIVERSITY: We celebrate our differences, recognizing diversity as a strength that will help us effectively tackle the challenges we collectively face. We strive to create an inclusive culture by authentically bringing diverse voices and perspectives into discussions and decision-making.
EMPATHY: We recognize the existence of generational, historical, community, and personal trauma. We approach every interaction, with clients and staff, with the empathy and compassion necessary to address trauma and repair harm.
GROWTH AND LEARNING: We commit to organizational learning and growth by listening, training, collaborating, and innovating, to ensure that our work is responsive, current, engaged, and focused on positive change.
DCDHS acknowledges the harm caused by systems that contribute to socio-economic and other disparities and inequitable outcomes, especially among communities of color. DCDHS understands that these systems still exist and seeks to chart a path of improvement by committing to a new aspirational vision, mission, and set of values.
You can view our vision, mission, and values from the 2016 - 2020 strategic plan here.
