These Emergent Principles are a reflection of my core values, and serves as a living document. My values and practices are always expanding, and I intend this to reflect change over time. This document was modeled after and inspired by Girls Rock Philly’s Points of Unity, the work of adrienne maree brown, Miram Zoila Perez’s The Radical Doula Guide, and countless other forces that continue to shape my work.
Emergent Principles
Community
Relationship-Centered Care
Full-Spectrum of Choice and Experience
Self-Awareness and Autonomy
We believe that every person is the expert in themselves, and has the right to self-definition. We support our community and our clients in the choices they make for their own bodies, and futures. We hope for a future in which resources allow for all people to make choices for their lives from a place of self-awareness, and with support.
We believe that those with white and class privilege have a responsibility to be aware of their social location. We believe that we are all capable of harm. We believe in Harm Reduction.
We believe in the power of self-awareness in establishing autonomy – personal, bodily, and political. We aspire to center individuals with lived experience in the work that we do, rather than operating within the limits of broken systems.
Race
We commit to addressing the enormous impact of race, racism, colonialism, white supremacy, and whiteness on the politics of health and wellness. We believe Black Lives Matter. We seek equity, especially in the context of Reproductive Justice – work named and driven by Black activists which provides a framework for understanding how all work towards equity is Reproductive Justice.
We acknowledge that the injustices that we seek to right within the world of perinatal, sexual, and reproductive health disproportionately effect people of the global majority, in particular Black birthing people. We commit to shining light on these injustices, and to actively dismantling white supremacy at all levels – internal, relational, and systemic. We aspire to engage in ongoing conversations on race within our communities and families, and to work to center working class, femme, and trans PGM as we engage.
Gender and Sexual Orientation
We believe that every person has the right to self-determine their own gender identity, gender expression, and sexual identity. Our work centers queer, trans, non-binary, and gender non-conforming people. We recognize the erasure of Intersex people, and we stand for Intersex Justice. We celebrate gender expansiveness as a liberating force for all of humanity, and an opportunity to break down the gender binary, which is an oppressive colonialist framework.
We acknowledge that harmful cisheteronormative assumptions are often made when it comes to sexual and reproductive health. Systems of oppression thrive amongst gender injustice. Working within an intersectional framework, we can defy the sexism, mysogyny, homophobia, transphobia, and femmephobia that is inherent in these systems.
We commit to practices that support and affirm gender self-determination and never assume cisheteronormativity. We support all growing families regardless family structure, or their use of genetic donors, surrogacy, surrender, or adoption in their choices to have or not have children. We aspire to engage in ongoing conversations on queer liberation within our communities and families, and to work to center working class, femme, and trans PGM as we engage.
Bodies and Beings
We recognize that people in certain bodies often devalued, fetishized, pathologized, and discriminated against. Regardless of race, ethnicity, age, presentation, Disability, neurodivergence, illness, or weight– we stand with those who expereince body-based oppression.
We acknowledge that current health systems and practices are built around an ableist framework.
We commit to making our services as financially accessible as possible, and make free and sliding scale resources and support available whenever possible.
We believe that seemingly individual transformative experiences such as gender transition, grief, pregnancy, abortion, birth, and postpartum all provide opportunities for expansive social change. All of our individual experiences, no matter how different, are intimately connected.
We value the role of community-centered collaboration in unifying the diverse experiences of many in order to inspire lasting change for all.
We envision a future with a Free Palestine!
We acknowledge we are on stolen land.
“We recognize that we live in a world of many different levels of systematic, interpersonal, and internalized oppressions– including but not limited to those based on white supremacy, patriarchy, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, ableism, and economic injustice and exploitation. We recognize that communities who face oppression on a daily basis are especially equipped with the tools and wisdom to dismantle these systems and envision what collective liberation can look like…We believe in creating brave and supportive spaces where our community members can feel seen, heard, and valued…We recognize that when we are not allowed to show our full humanity and vulnerability, we can inadvertently perpetuate the violent effects of patriarchy by holding ourselves and each other to impossible standards of perfectionism. We commit to upholding a culture of kindness, generosity and respect. We lean into mistakes as courageous spaces of conversation and growth, and realize that when we show our vulnerability, it makes room for others to do the same.” – Girls Rock Philly
We commit to inviting in all of the voices, people, and perspectives that can inform best practices in this work. We aspire to adjust and adapt with grace in order to meet the needs of our community, as we seek to use our work to build a better world. We aspire to approach this challenging work with love, awe, and hope.