Mission & Values

According to Omushkegowuk Cree ontologies, “place is shaped by local people, knowledge systems, and land-based practices as well as by colonial-capitalist structures of power” ³. These interconnected and interdependent relationships form a distinct identity, a personality of place that can be related to and known. As such, there is a sense of responsibility that comes with knowing a place intimately and in relational ways. Place-based responsibility coalesces knowledge holders with long histories of participation in this work – those living and working in ways that express care for place⁴.

VOICES is committed to understanding and responding to the specific histories, contexts, and needs of our local PCC community and the surrounding region. We believe that meaningful change begins by acknowledging our shared place and working collaboratively to address the unique challenges and opportunities within it. 

Epistemic justice inclusively expands knowledge creation by validating the truths and experiences of students and community alike and offers empowering opportunities to contribute those insights for the common good by collaboratively confronting fallacies that exacerbate discrimination and inequities⁵.

VOICES actively works to recognize, value, and integrate diverse forms of knowledge and the lived experiences of students and the community alike, ensuring that marginalized perspectives are not only heard but also considered central to our understanding and action. We strive to disrupt traditional hierarchies of knowledge and foster cognitive justice in all our endeavors.

Co-creation seeks collaborative routes to discovery and towards justice. It seeks to decolonize the systems that oppress and to stimulate projects that don’t simply document or passively observe the world, but insist on change. At its core, co-creation is relational. The word connotes a collective sense of ownership, a joint journey of discovery, and an abandonment of ego⁶.

VOICES encourages students, faculty, and community members to collaboratively envision more just and equitable futures beyond the constraints of current realities. We believe that the most impactful and sustainable change emerges from collective visioning and collaborative action.

Collective care is the practice of individuals coming together in shared responsibility to support and nurture each other’s well-being, growth, and overall welfare within a community⁷. It is a strategy that actively resists the ways we have been socialized toward alienation, isolation, individualism, competition, and scarcity; it models an alternative way of being and calls for us to practice and embody our visions of liberation and justice as the basis for creating social change⁸.

VOICES recognizes that the processes of challenging ingrained biases and dismantling systemic oppression can be draining, both mentally and emotionally. We honor the emotional bandwidth of students, faculty, and community members engaging in this work and prioritize relationships over academic deadlines and other sources of urgency.