Our Mission & Goal

Our Mission

Children’s Friend is the innovative leader in improving the well-being and healthy development of Rhode Island’s most vulnerable young children.

Our Strategic Priority

Too many of the youngest and most vulnerable children in Rhode Island are experiencing devastating outcomes, including death, as a result of abuse and neglect. As stewards of the resources entrusted to us, Children’s Friend is realigning itself to proactively respond to this crisis.

Our Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Children’s Friend is committed to fostering, cultivating, and preserving a culture of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Our employees are the collective sum of individual differences, life experiences, knowledge, skill, self-expression, unique capabilities, and talent that represents not only our culture but our commitment to diversity and inclusion. We embrace and encourage our employees’ differences in age, color, disability, ethnicity, family or marital status, gender identity or expression, language, national origin, physical and mental ability, political affiliation, race, religion, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, veteran status, and other characteristics that make our employees unique.

Children’s Friend’s diversity initiatives are applicable – but not limited to our practices and policies on recruitment and selection; compensation and benefits; professional development and training; promotions; transfers; and ongoing commitment to maintaining a positive work environment.

All employees of the Agency have a responsibility to treat others with dignity and respect at all times.

Our Principles

Family-Centered

Family-Centered:

Discovering child and family needs and working with families to best meet them. Providing opportunities for families to be meaningfully engaged in the design of services. Being committed to serving families of diverse cultures and lifestyles in a non-biased and non-judgmental way.

Seamless

Seamless:

Coordinating and integrating our services to ensure that families receive the support they need, regardless of point of entry to the agency. When our families face challenges outside our expertise, we partner with other high-quality organizations.

Outcome-Driven:

Outcome-Driven

Thoughtfully measuring the impact and effectiveness of our services. Engaging in ongoing learning and innovation to ensure we are offering effective services to children and families. Consistently identifying what we can improve, doing what we can do best, and measuring our self against national benchmarks.

Advocates

Advocates:

Taking a leadership role in educating policymakers and the public on the needs of the youngest and most vulnerable children, even when it means taking risks for the benefit of children.

Stewards

Stewards:

Taking responsibility for growing and sustaining our human and financial capital. Demonstrating respect and cultural sensitivity for our community, staff, and Board.