Community Education Partnerships (CEP) provides educational support to students facing homelessness and housing insecurity in the Bay Area. We recruit, screen, and train volunteers to provide high-quality academic tutoring and mentoring for our students. We also run a Children's Learning Center in Oakland and host group programming throughout the Bay Area. As we approach our work, we acknowledge that: + Access to safe and appropriate housing and high-quality educational opportunities are fundamental rights that are denied to too many. + Homelessness and housing instability need not, but too often do, create obstacles to learning and educational access. + Education is empowering. + So-called “achievement gaps” are better understood as “opportunity gaps.” + There is intrinsic value in learning, even if not aimed at academic achievement. + Everyone can learn if given the opportunity, tools, time, and support to do so. + All students deserve to be held to high expectations and set up for academic success. Our philosophy of service is based on: + Respect, humility, and non-judgment. + The recognition that with our privilege comes the opportunity and responsibility to show up and use our advantages and resources to help our neighbors. + The belief that all children have a right to be seen, heard, and valued and that showing up for children now can have a life-long impact. + An acknowledgment that the communities we serve are best able to identify their needs and priorities and that their voices and guidance should direct our planning and decision making. + The recognition that, through service, we can build meaningful connections between individuals and groups who are often segregated from each other.