We champion two simple and important ideas. First, all people deserve the opportunity to grow into healthy, independent, and engaged citizens. Second, collaboratively we all have the responsibility to ensure that opportunity prevails.
The Foundry is a company devoted to unlocking human potential. Our mission is to help people discover and develop their strengths and talents to impact the world in a profound and unique way.
Vision: Ensure opportunity prevails for all people.
Why do we exist?
We exist to ensure that all people receive the opportunity to grow into healthy, independent, and engaged citizens.
We exist to ensure that all people receive the opportunity to grow into healthy, independent, and engaged citizens.
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What do we do?
Workforce development! Workforce development is an interconnected set of solutions to meet employment needs. We offer COACHING, CONSULTING, TRAINING, and STAFFING. Through workforce development we can change culture, attitudes, and people’s potential that help to positively influence a community’s trajectory. We help prepare workers, at all levels, with the skills necessary to be successful. |
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How will we succeed?
Collaboration! Society's most challenging problems require the collaborative work of many. The issues of poverty, education, health equity, employment, racial tensions, and a clean environment impact us all. No longer can citizens or communities sit back and watch as governments and nonprofits attempt to tackle these issues individually and alone. Success can only be found in a holistic approach led by a broad mix of private, public, and social sector institutions.
Collaboration! Society's most challenging problems require the collaborative work of many. The issues of poverty, education, health equity, employment, racial tensions, and a clean environment impact us all. No longer can citizens or communities sit back and watch as governments and nonprofits attempt to tackle these issues individually and alone. Success can only be found in a holistic approach led by a broad mix of private, public, and social sector institutions.
How do we behave?
Three core values guide our behaviors and decisions. These values represent the essence of our organization.
Three core values guide our behaviors and decisions. These values represent the essence of our organization.
LOVE
We love our employees, our clients, and the work that we do. Our work is grounded in love. Love causes us to strive to know and to be known. It instructs us to listen and to hear. Love demands that we open our arms to human diversity. Love empowers us to be a voice for the voiceless. Love causes us to put ourselves at risk for the sake of others. It drives our thoughts and our actions. It brings people together. Maya Angelou said she had learned that “people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” The way we treat and engage people will have a bigger impact than what we do or what we say. We strive to live out the core value of love by being good neighbors, connecting with people in real relationships, and serving the needs of our community. |
LAUGH
We enjoy laughing with our employees, our clients, and throughout our work. We believe that life is best lived when it is filled with laughter. If you aren’t laughing every day then you are probably doing life wrong. Humor at work leads to more production, less stress, and a happier life. Work can and should be fun, fulfilling, and exciting. We do our best not to take ourselves too seriously and balance all the seriousness that comes in life with laughter. |
LEARN
We learn. We teach. We grow. As a learning organization we are continually involved in the learning process; learning and working are seamlessly intertwined. Our clients can expect a future filled with innovation that actively creates, captures, transfers, and mobilizes knowledge to enable them to adapt to a changing environment. Our employees can expect to grow personally and professionally. As an organization we are open to creative thought and embrace the concept that solutions to ongoing work-related problems are available inside each and every one of us. |
What is most important--right now?
We can’t think of anything more important, or a bigger driving force, than community leadership and involvement. In history, there have been many attempts by "outsiders" to alleviate problems and issues found in local communities. These attempts most often fall short of becoming real change. Real, long-term, solutions originate in the communities themselves. The Foundry is an organization started in the Roanoke Valley by people from the Roanoke Valley. This ancient Chinese proverb succinctly communicates our community thoughts:
We can’t think of anything more important, or a bigger driving force, than community leadership and involvement. In history, there have been many attempts by "outsiders" to alleviate problems and issues found in local communities. These attempts most often fall short of becoming real change. Real, long-term, solutions originate in the communities themselves. The Foundry is an organization started in the Roanoke Valley by people from the Roanoke Valley. This ancient Chinese proverb succinctly communicates our community thoughts:
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Go to the people,
Live among them, Learn from them, Love them. Start with what they know, Build on what they have: But of the best leaders, When their task is done, The people will remark, “We have done it ourselves." |
