Mission: To build and sustain a community that is racially, culturally and socially integrated and truly inclusive where there is equity and equality for all.

Vision: We aspire to be a community that is a model for the nation in which people of different races, ethnic groups and backgrounds can interact, form friendships and participate fully in the community’s economic, political, civic, educational and cultural life. 

Adopted 2016

Board Initiatives 2020-2021

• Strengthen the community’s commitment to racial and cultural inclusion of all people of color by challenging the community power structures* to rectify disparities and by promoting the value of inclusiveness to the well-being of the community.
  *(municipal government, school system, realtors, businesses, arts and recreation groups, corporate and nonprofit groups, media, and key leaders and influencers)
• Ensure the sustainability of racial integration in SOMA by both affirming and supporting the current population of Black people and by researching and developing strategies to increase the rate of Black in-movers.

Statement of Beliefs and Mission

We Believe That:

•  Honest dialogue between racial groups without the constraints of fear is essential to building meaningful relationships within our organization and in our community and in our world.
• Racial integration, true inclusion, and racially sensitive communities of faith will ultimately benefit the entire community in all areas that contribute to quality of life, including schools, housing values, civic life, business, and government.
• Our efforts to achieve a racially integrated and truly inclusive community need to be both intentional and clear in language and actions.
• The benefits of a racially integrated and truly inclusive community cannot be attained without taking risks and positions that may challenge existing ideas.
• Therefore, our mission is to become a community that fully exemplifies thriving racial integration and true inclusion.

Our Goals

•  Our schools are racially integrated and have closed the achievement gap. Students of all races are achieving academic excellence in an equitable and representative fashion throughout our public school system.
•  All neighborhoods are racially integrated and truly inclusive in Maplewood and South Orange.
•  Government, civic, and business organizations in both towns are racially representative and have embraced racial integration and inclusion as a civic value.
•  It is common throughout the community to see people of all races socializing together in public and in private
• All of this is accomplished while property values in all neighborhoods continue at optimal levels for the current market conditions.
• The South Orange/Maplewood Community Coalition on Race model is instrumental in building racially integrated and truly inclusive communities throughout the nation and other communities ask the Coalition for consultation and guidance.

Adopted June 26, 2008