Our commitments to each other and to you.
Values and Norms
Canopy Values
Driven by our commitment to collective well-being and community empowerment, it is of the highest importance to embody ethical practices that benefit and enrich all who interface with us. As a values-driven company, Canopy Mental Health & Consulting seeks to center the following ideals in all aspects of the work we do. While no person or institution is capable of acting according to their values at all times, it is important for us to communicate what we work towards, so our community can keep us accountable in our efforts.
Multiculturalism
We actively resist centering white dominant culture as the default in our practice and actively work against internalized white supremacy permeating our approach. We instead individualize our practice, and approach each person from the standpoint of their own culture, traditions and needs. We engage each other as professionals in difficult but necessary conversations about the impact of race and culture in our business and services. We emphasize and consider the community, historical and political context, and our connections between each other when considering our approach to working with recipients and engaging with each other as professionals.
Strong Customer Service
We strive to consider the impact of mental illness and societal marginalization on those we serve. We believe that recipients who may present with high needs should be treated with dignity and with consideration of their unique situations. It is our perspective that our people-oriented work should truly put people first, and we will strive to treat our recipients as if it is our privilege to serve them.
Excellence in Therapeutic Services
Our ultimate goal is to provide therapeutic services worthy of the immense trust our recipients place in us when they present for care. We believe that it is of the utmost importance to provide the highest quality of services, especially considering our focus on serving marginalized and underserved populations. We encourage and facilitate our staff’s professional growth.
Environmental Responsibility
We value using as few unrenewable resources as possible and opt to do business remotely and electronically, when possible. We ascribe to the view that a business should not exist if it cannot responsibly exist in a way that benefits society overall.
Openness and Egalitarianism
We actively work towards a culture where openness is the norm. We aspire to de-emphasize hierarchy and power differentials, by including egalitarian styles of decision-making and management. Extra care is taken to ensure that all voices are heard, not just voices of the ownership/leadership. We reject the notion that order is more important than justice and representation within our organization. We work towards maintaining transparency and open lines of communication between management and staff, and staff and recipients. Additionally, any changes made by management are directly communicated to staff when possible. We strive to cultivate a culture in which it is acceptable to ask hard questions, speak non-judgmentally about growth areas, and practice vulnerability in our interactions.
Ethical Employment
We believe that for a workplace to be healthy and recipients to be well-served, staff needs to feel respected and connected. Canopy’s priority is to provide fair pay, facilitation of regular consultation, staff meetings for input on important organizational issues, and connection- building activities. Employees’ well-being and work-life balance is of the utmost importance.
Company Health
Traditional capitalist businesses value growth for the sake of growth. While diversification of services may be important for sustainability, we view healthy financials and healthy workplace culture as vastly more important than growth. This means only expanding services and operations if we can also maintain our values and health while doing it.
Canopy Norms
At Canopy MHC, we aspire to adopt the following as our norms. We hope to live up to our values by centering these perspectives and behaviors as typical and celebrated in the workplace.
Empathy
People and their humanity come first before all else.
Respect
We duly regard the feelings, ideas, perspectives, and traditions of others in our actions. We understand that respect can be culture-bound and subjective, so we take time to understand what respect means to each person and treat them accordingly.
Accountability
When we make mistakes, we acknowledge them specifically. We openly affirm members who bravely practice accountability.
Reliability
We do what we say we are going to do, only commit to what we can follow through with and do not overcommit.
Privacy
We only share information that we have been given consent to share. We reject the temptation to gossip.
Non-judgement
We assume the best intentions and extend the benefit of the doubt. If others make different choices than what we would, we assume they have valid reasons.
Directness
We communicate our significant needs, desires, and perspectives directly to other members of the community who need to know and are impacted by them. In the event of strong feelings, we go directly to the people involved without bringing in others who are not.
Curiosity
We maintain a healthy sense of curiosity instead of taking rigid stances. We choose to ask questions when in doubt and seek to understand before assuming.