Mission Statement
Mountain Meadow is a progressive and diverse community dedicated to providing a supportive and safe space for all children of LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer) and other non-traditional families and their allies.
Vision
Mountain Meadow creates a safe and supportive community where children of LGBTQ families are empowered to affirm and appreciate family diversity. We aspire to incorporate these values that will challenge oppression and create on-going social change. Through the cultivation of multi-generational relationships, Mountain Meadow will enhance communication skills and cultural acceptance while providing programming specific to awareness and celebration of non-traditional families and their allies. Mountain Meadow instills our children with the confidence to be competent in the face of ignorance and intolerance.
Values
We value a safe, diverse, and inclusive community dedicated to serving the broad needs of our constituency. We encourage respectful expression of diverse views, ideas, and opinions, and we strive for every voice within our community to be heard. We intentionally challenge our own prejudices and internalized oppression in order to learn, grow, and progress as a community.
We value youth empowerment and encourage youth to challenge and be challenged by their environment. We support youth to express emotions while affirming each other and creating a healthy community. We value youth involvement and leadership in every facet of the organization.
We value the full inclusion of all aspects of individuals' multiple identities and experiences. We are committed to offering accessible programming and strive to meet the unique needs of all the youth we serve. We endeavor to create a community in which all youth thrive.
We value and are committed to the effective use of consensus and to organizational processes that support honesty, transparency, and integrity in all levels of our organization.
We value fiscal responsibility as a means to secure the operational health and stability of the organization. We endeavor to embed our values into our fundraising practices.
We value continuous organizational growth and learning. We strive to stay abreast of and be the first to address the changing needs of the communities we serve.
We value equality and justice for all youth and their families. We strive to educate the LGBTQ community and the broader society about the unique and diverse experiences and needs of the communities we serve. We are committed to working for social change.
Julie Greenberg, a feminist lesbian rabbi from Philadelphia, founded Mountain Meadow in 1981 and continued to develop and administer Mountain Meadow as a feminist summer camp for girls until 1987. After a brief organizational hiatus, Rebecca Subar and Merle Berman revived Mountain Meadow in 1991. Motivated by their inability to find organized activities mirroring their social activist and leadership values for their own children, Subar and Berman worked with other activists committed to social change in the Philadelphia community to form a Planning Collective that designed and implemented a youth-centered, non-profit Summer Program for children of all genders with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) parents. From the beginning, creating a diverse community and providing equal access to social activist and leadership programming for people of varying economic backgrounds was critical to Planning Collective members. Their vision was instituted through a sliding-scale tuition policy and a commitment to engaging in yearly fundraising campaigns. Beginning with only 15 program participants, Mountain Meadow grew steadily over the years and now serves over 100 youth each year.
What's it like to be a kid and have a lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender parent? Mountain Meadow kids will tell you that each person's experience is different from the next. Some kids are open with their classmates, while many are not. Some are angry with their gay parent; others work for gay rights. Some are just getting used to the idea; others never knew life any other way. All blossom at Mountain Meadow, where their families are “normal,” where no one asks “Yeah, but which one is your real mom?” and where there's never a reason to hide.
