We know the importance of being flexible and that there are no easy or right answers when it comes to doing work equitably. There are only better approaches that are responsive to needs and feedback. We bring an unparalleled commitment and dedication to our work. We welcome opportunities to elevate our impact, and we stay the course through project iterations and cycles of change and improvement.

We take our work seriously and prioritize creating well-researched products and providing high-quality services. We use transdisciplinary approaches to our work that are grounded in scientific and systematic methods without being rigid or dogmatic. The approaches we use and teach are responsive to the needs, feedback, and lived experiences of affected communities and our partners. While we strive for excellence, we orient to the value of “quality,” which recognizes that what is considered useful and impactful is dependent on users’ and communities’ experiences. We care about creating meaningful change and not just metrics.

Equity, and community change, work requires a willingness to be uncomfortable and uncertain. We actively work on building our, and our clients’, capacity to stand in a space of uncertainty and work with an orientation of openness. We allow ourselves to be shaped by the feedback and experiences of those we serve without compromising our values. We’ re constantly dreaming up new ideas and are always seeking to innovate. But we believe creativity isn’t just about what’s “new.” It’s also a willingness to return to existing problems with improvements. We address the complexity of public health work with a mindset of creativity and multi-pronged methods to find creative solutions.

We believe in the innate beauty of our world and that there is worth and potential in all of us. We view beauty in business as a restorative force that reflects our capacity for care and impact. We strive to create a more beautiful and healthy world through our work. We aim to create beautiful products and believe that this is reflective of the care and dedication we bring to our work.

We know that community change and equity work cannot be carried out in isolation. We’re all in this together, and we need each other to learn, grow, and thrive. At HEART, we’re motivated by creating connections and relationships. We aim to build communities of practice where we can exchange ideas and learning. And through our work, we hope to create deeper relationships and to embed ourselves more fully in our communities of residence.

We’re passionate about creating real impacts in our clients’ lives, and ultimately, in the communities we, and our clients, serve. We’re driven by our mission, which serves as our compass. Our ultimate goal is one of contribution, not just impact. Service as an act begins with a series of internal shifts where we evaluate our authentic reasons for doing this work - at HEART, we’re not interested in change for the sake of change alone, or to boost our own reputations. We’ve intentionally chosen to step aside from vanity metrics and the “bigger, better, faster” culture that has pervaded much of the research world. We’re willing to slow down in order to serve thoughtfully, and we actively practice de-centering our perspectives in order to amplify communities’ voices.

We are committed to our own growth and evolution as an organization. We believe that while growth is important, transformation is more profound and impactful. Transformations require new ways of thinking, expansions of worldviews, and paradigm shifts. We seek to transform how community change and health work happens, and in so doing, to transform our selves as practitioners and our communities.