Mission

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" rowspan="2" width=200 BGCOLOR="#99CC99" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="1278dfc3.jpg"> <div> <A HREF="id33.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Calendar"><U><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c866330000.gif" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Calendar</U></A></div> <div> <B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c866330000.gif" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Mission</B></div> <div> <A HREF="id34.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Tool Box"><U><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c866330000.gif" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Tool Box</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id29.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="History of New Directions"><U><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c866330000.gif" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">History of New Directions</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id30.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Board of Directors"><U><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c866330000.gif" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Board of Directors</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id32.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Staff Volunteers"><U><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c866330000.gif" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Staff & Volunteers</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id35.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Supporters"><U><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c866330000.gif" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Supporters</U></A></div> </td> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=82 BGCOLOR="#CCCC99" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="1288dfe1esnpes.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#336666" FACE="Arial" ><B>New Directions CBRI</B></FONT><B>     </B><B>|</B><B>     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="New Directions CBRI"><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div> back to  <A HREF="id2.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Institute"><U><B>The Institute</B></U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" height=398 colspan=2 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <B>Mission</B></div> <div> New Directions is a Long Island not-for-profit organization that recruits university professors and their students along with community service professionals, to work with the citizens of communities that are delimited by school district, village or city boundaries.  Civic groups and volunteers are invited to study their communities and learn how to strengthen existing assets and develop new ones.  New Directions has established joint ventures and standing project teaming arrangements with regional and national trainers and technical assistance providers in support of adult civic learning activities and grassroots community-building ventures such as community land trusts.</div> <div> New Directions specializes in research, planning and the design of collaborative partnership programs to create new local institutions.  Over time, our <I>Discover Your Community </I>program aims to facilitate informed public deliberation and consensus building based on good information.  </div> <div> We bring diverse perspectives together to resolve differences, develop strategies and address complex issues.  Successful communities are those where effective research and planning allows local businesses, government and nonprofit groups to work together with citizens and citizen groups to reach collective goals and meet common challenges.</div> <div> <I><B>Discover Your Community</B></I><B>   </B></div> <div> Since February, 2003, the overarching structure for this work has been <I>Discover Your Community, </I> a suburban school district cooperative education extension program for grassroots community building. It is designed to enable the citizens of a school district to learn about their community and take an active role in shaping its future. Over time, it will build an information base and growing community awareness by involving citizens, district students and area university students in projects of basic research, community conversations and “learning by doing.” These projects will increase community resourcefulness and bring into being a <I>learning community</I> that will be able to assess and respond to opportunities and challenges.</div> <div> New Directions designs and facilitates customized leadership training sessions which allow the civic groups to profitably initiate community-based research with, by and for the mutual benefit of the researchers, their students and the community.  </div> <div> The underlying philosophy of New Directions is the belief that both the scientific value of research and its usefulness to local communities are greater when the research is community-based.  By this we mean that the people who live or work in a place have a maximum feasible opportunity to participate in deciding what research is needed and helping carry it out.</div> <div> Our primary civic partners are the civic associations of neighborhoods, hamlets and school districts.  On behalf of the civic partners, we also work with the more specialized and formally organized entities such as the local school system and local government. </div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>