Language Is A Powerful Tool: Camelback's New Mission + Vision Statements
The public health crisis in the last 15+ months has been a season of introspection. The pandemic has affirmed that the racial and economic disparities Camelback Fellows work to change is real. This period in time has also encouraged us to make sure that our mission and vision is aligned with our values and what we want to create in the world. Language is a powerful tool that can order your steps and be the light that others can follow.
The Camelback team with support from Deloitte Service Corps - embarked on a purposeful journey to revisit our mission and vision statements. This internal process sparked thoughtful (and oftentimes heated) conversation around who we are as an organization and where we are going. What has remained clear is our commitment to highlight the genius and the work of the Black, Indigenous, People of Color and women entrepreneurs we serve.
Some of our internal candid exchanges included questions about whether we should describe our Fellows as “underserved”, “underrepresented”, or “undervalued”? How do we call out our commitment to supporting people across the gender spectrum while recognizing the intersectionality of identity? Should we break the gender binary implicit in our language? We aspire for the words we choose to describe the depth and diversity of the contributions of our Fellows, while not centering the systemic challenges in their way.
After many deliberations, we landed on the refreshed versions of Camelback’s mission and vision statements below:
MISSION | Camelback Ventures increases access to opportunity for entrepreneurs of color and women by investing in their ventures and leadership while advocating for fairness in their funding.
VISION | By seeking solutions in the genius of undervalued entrepreneurs, our vision is to create livable communities and wealth for future generations to inherit.
And in the spirit of radical candor, we are not completely satisfied with the phrase “entrepreneurs of color” or “women'' because we know it groups many into one in both instances. For now, we accept that language is one avenue to communicate our values and we have set our sights on acknowledging all the complexity that is not captured in these words through our actions - from how we build our application, to how we make space for all staff, to how we build our programs.
When Camelback first started, our goal was to build a community of people committed to diversifying entrepreneurship. We know, though, that our work is about more than putting new faces to old problems. It is about how we can grow a community willing to use their assets to pass on a future that can work for everyone. For this to be true it also means confronting the anti-Blackness and white supremacy built into our system.
As we bounce back from this pandemic, our team’s hope is for Camelback to continue to support an equitable recovery in the entrepreneurial ecosystem and beyond - and that our refreshed mission and vision statements continue to align with our ever-evolving journey towards impactful systemic change.
Onward,
The Camelback Team
