Our Mission:
The Federation of Neighborhood Centers (FNC) promotes and strengthens neighborhood-based, multi-service agencies that principally serve low income people in the Greater Philadelphia region. A membership organization rooted in the history and values of the settlement house movement, we support our member organizations through policy development, advocacy and capacity building activities.
What we do and why it matters:
FNC strengthens its members by...
- Brokering high-quality opportunities for technical assistance, management support and professional development for its members provided by outside organizations and experts. Whenever possible, FNC will draw upon the expertise of its own members as an important source of knowledge and expertise.
- Providing an effective and meaningful forum for member agency staff in various roles to engage in peer support, professional development, and networking to increase overall organizational effectiveness.
- Broadening resources opportunities for members in a variety of ways.
- Serving as an incubator for new approaches to address social welfare issues of concern to our members and their communities.
- Effecting policy change that addresses emerging and significant social welfare issues of concern to our members and their communities; and supports the ways that the neighborhood-based, multi-generational, multi-service model addresses these issues.
Our Values
Integrity
Honesty, combined with ethical and principled behaviors is the basis of our work. We convey this through mutual trust and respect for our customers and our peers.
Shared Leadership
We believe that leadership comes from all levels. Our commitment to provide continual learning, individual growth and professional development reflects our belief in the value of our staff, member agencies and their respective teams. We value the input of our staff and the management and direct service professionals of our member agencies.
Collaboration
We understand the interdependence of the Federation and its member agencies and actively seek to strengthen those relationships and to forge new partnerships with others to achieve our common goals. We are committed to the sharing of information, energy and resources with each other. We celebrate the diversity of our partners and our neighborhoods.
Advocacy
The Federation understands its role as an advocate for the neighborhoods and those who serve those neighborhoods. We seek to provide a platform where our unified voice informs public policy, funding, philanthropy and law.
Intentional Innovation
We encourage and support innovative ideas, visions and dreams of all levels of leadership, staff and volunteers of our member agencies. We are committed to provide opportunities for creativity and will provide a structure to seek ways to initiate those innovations through funding and other support.
Customer Service
The Federation believes that customer service must be the core of all that we do. We will provide our member agencies and constituencies with seamless services that are creative, accessible, resourceful, respectful, courteous and reliable.
Capacity Building
At our core, we are a capacity building institution. We embrace our responsibility to partner with our member agencies to help build capacity through training, funding, programming, intellectual resources and mentoring. We understand that by helping build the capacity of our members, we build our own capacity.
Performance
All of our commitments and principles are reflected in the quality of our performance. We are a performance-driven agency, managed through metrics and measures that inform our continual improvement.