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Our Vision, Mission, and Values

U-POWER envisions work and workplaces that are safe, healthy, and equitable. Together, we can ensure that the conditions of work promote the health and well-being of workers and communities.

The mission of U-POWER is to create a sustainable community of practice that changes the conditions of work and advances Total Worker Health® (TWH) through research and outreach. The following values have guided the development of the U-POWER vision and mission, and are reflected in the U-POWER management approaches and research projects:

  1. Justice and fair treatment. All workers, including those in U-POWER, deserve to experience safe, healthy work. We strive to identify and acknowledge the role of power in defining roles and work conditions, and change the power in relationships to ensure justice and fair treatment.
  2. Community: Collaboration, openness, and inclusion. Partnerships among workers, employers, communities, and interdisciplinary scholars from multiple organizations are necessary to identify challenges and develop solutions that make work and workplaces safe, healthy, and equitable. Collaboration requires effective communication and authentic openness to new ideas, methods, and perspectives. We strive to create an environment where all people are respected and valued for their unique experiences and perspectives and feel safe to express themselves.
  3. Rigor and relevance. We recognize changes to power structures cannot take place without establishing trust, credibility, and a clear justification of the rationale behind actions. We strive to employ a rich, vibrant, and rigorous approach to examining assumptions that underlie current conditions of work and reflect the inherent complexities and histories of work and power.
  4. Transformation. Through self-reflection and lifelong learning, we can continue to grow intellectually and emotionally. We strive to develop new ideas, transdisciplinary frameworks, and the confidence to challenge paradigms that have created and sustained unsafe and unhealthy conditions of work.
  5. Participatory Decision-Making. Sharing decision-making across a group opens the space for a plurality of perspectives that is more authentic and democratic and invites an open and honest deliberation on the challenge of supporting safe, healthy, and equitable work. We strive to enable participation in decision-making in a way that respects diversity of thought, allows for the co-existence of divergent conceptualizations, and recognizes varying or conflicting implications of a choice.