Guiding Principles

CYB was originally conceived under the premise that our traditions, language, cultural practices and values are themselves the medicine that our ancestors created and left for us to stay grounded and to build strong and healthy individuals and communities. CyB aims to reaffirm and embrace these practices to promote wellness and build resiliency among participants in our program.

CyB prides itself in being born from a community process that informed and defined what the community themselves wanted to see in this new program. Over the years CyB has continued to be representative of the experiences of our clients and strived to respond to the changing context and landscapes in our communities. We listen and support the community to address their challenges and to validate what they know is best for them.

We aim to destigmatize and normalize mental health in our communities by eradicating the values of superiority and supremacy that devalue, pathologize and overmedicalize those confronting mental health challenges. Our work aims to return control to the community over their wellness and health by way of traditional healing and cultural practices that enhance resiliency and heal those suffering from mental health challenges.

We aim at moving away from a deficit and problem-based model to addressing mental health and wellness and toward the perspective of the innate strengths that we all carry individually and as community. We harness the strength and resiliency of our communities to care for one another and to create and sustain healthy and balanced lifestyles. “We are capable and deserving to live happy and successful lives and not just survive” Monica Z.

We are committed to build relationships in our community based on authentic care and love for others and plan our offerings to the people we serve based on this principle that acknowledges the power of radical and unconditional love to overcome hardship and build a more accepting and inclusive world that bring about healing and wellness.

We value the power of collaboration to deliver more and better services to our communities. This entails a collaborative approach to leadership, planning and decision making that involves all partners in the program, supporting each other and ensuring understanding, transparency, and accountability.

We value and embrace the teachings, practices and traditions that our elders, healers and ancestors have left us and are committed to continue to cultivate these practices as means for healthier and balanced lifestyles. We also recognize the power in our own communities to overcome difficulty and to create their own practices and solutions to the challenges they face. We expand the conventional definition to include arts, music, movement, food, language, experience, and community as part of the practices we have been fortunate enough to inherit and that aid in our wellness and resiliency.

We recognize the immense cultural, linguistic and otherwise diversity of experiences that exists in our communities and embrace these differences as one of the greatest strengths we have to build a more resilient, empowered and healthier community.