- An intersectional approach that reflects the lived experience of individuals across multiple identities and systems.
- Honor Distinct Worldviews in Research and Evaluation. Indigenous and Western approaches to research are rooted in fundamentally different worldviews—one relational and cyclical, the other linear and human-centered. Valuing both requires acknowledging diverse ways of knowing, being, and defining expertise, while also reflecting on one’s positionality and committing to move at the speed of trust in partnership with communities.
- Demonstrated partnership with communities, especially those who are and have been historically marginalized.
- Expansive understanding of economic mobility- beyond financial outcomes – and includes the essential conditions of safety, dignity, belonging, agency, etc.
- Innovative uses of qualitative data (e.g., ethnography, storytelling & oral history, and community designed research) in partnership with communities to tell a richer and more holistic story.
