NZ Launches New Mission Statement
Dear Friends,
Young people's experience in 2024 looks significantly different than in 2006 when our last mission statement was created. And it is even more different now than in 1998 when NZ was first founded. Today, youth seek a space where they can authentically show up as themselves. They need creative opportunities to be innovative. They need to know that they have a community that affirms their power. And, they need support and resources to navigate the structures and systems that too often serve as barriers. This work is transformational on many levels - for our youth, for our center, and for our community.
NZ teens, staff and teen board members
With the support of a consulting firm, Emergence Collective, the Neutral Zone convened its teens, staff, and board of directors for a day-long retreat in January of 2023 to reflect on our values, embrace our story, and identify key words to understand who we are today. With this reflection, we sought to identify our why for today.
A task force group convened over several months to reflect on the notes from the retreat to propose a mission statement. And finally, after several rounds of conversations with teens, staff, and our board, the NZ had created a new mission reflective of who we are today.
Jayla Fields, Skyline Senior and member of the Neutral Zone Board of Directors, took a lead role in the writing of the new mission. Jayla reflected on the experience:
NZ board member Jayla Fields
“The process was interesting. We looked at the old mission statement for reference and we took the most important parts. Then we wanted to incorporate the Neutral Zone’s main goals for teens and the main takeaways we wanted people to have when they left the building.
“It’s not just talking about how we can do creative things here, but outside the space. You’re allowed to be yourself and figure out yourself and I think that's important - it really is like a neutral zone. It allows people to be themselves and to figure out their interests and individuality.
“Not only does Neutral Zone help you to uncover your passions, it gives you resources to pursue them. It provides teens with the opportunity to walk away from the space and enter adulthood independently, with new-found knowledge of themselves, discovered at Neutral Zone.”
-Jayla Fields
Our mission is the compass that guides us to know who we are and that we rely on to guide our decisions that impact our culture, our programming, and the experience that youth have in NZ. This mission challenges us to ensure that we continue to partner with our youth to build community through equity and justice.
New Mission Statement 2024
Neutral Zone is a transformative, youth-driven community where youth
embrace their power, ignite their creativity, and launch their future
to build equity, justice, and collective liberation.
Neutral Zone board members and staff with a poster of the new mission statement
NZ board members and staff working together during a leadership activity
Second Mission Statement 2006:
The Neutral Zone is a diverse, youth-driven teen center dedicated to promoting personal growth through artistic expression, community leadership and the exchange of ideas.
Original Mission Statement 1998:
The Neutral Zone is a youth-oriented, youth-advised place which offers a fun, entertaining, safe environment for teenagers to meet with friends and meet new people, learn new things and satisfy their need for a home away from home; a place to call their own during high risk hours.
The Neutral Zone relies on donations from community for the funds to make these programs possible. Click the link below to make a gift today. Your support provides everything from the leadership experience for the teens serving on our board of directors to snacks and a safe space to unwind after school.