Philosophy

The main ideas behind this project are caring about kids and their families, appreciation for culture, building on people’s strengths, and helping kids to have the best possible environment to grow up in.
The Village Project takes an ecological approach to understanding the development of both positive and negative child outcomes. According to Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model, a child’s development is affected by their ecology, or environment. This ecology includes their immediate environment at home as well as places farther away, such as school, their neighborhood, and their parent’s place of work. A child’s ecology includes people that they come into contact with directly, such as family, friends, neighbors, and teachers. Children’s lives are also affected by people that they have indirect contact with, such as a parent’s boss, the school superintendent, and vandals who destroy neighborhood property. The closer the child is to people and places in his or her environment, the more the child will be affected by them. The child is also part of the ecology, therefore the environment doesn’t just affect the child, and the child also affects his or her environment. According to Bronfenbrenner, each child and family naturally do their best to adapt and grow in their environment. However, the healthier the child’s environment, the healthier the child. Environments are healthiest when many members of the environment work together to promote a child’s well-being.