Our Mission
To generate and implement innovative strategies so that more people thrive in an evermore peaceful world.
Many approaches to change rely on convincing people to embrace particular beliefs and ideologies.
Our approach is different.
We model and teach behaviors that mitigate harm and ensure it doesn’t persist. We draw stark lines against bigotry and persistent bias. We normalize confusion, honest ignorance, and mistakes. We meet people where they are with compassion. We transform fear into curiosity.
We are fiercely strategic and intentional.
We are impatient for change.
Services
Grounded in careful thinking, research, and deep respect for work that has come before, our services support change aligned with the unique character and challenges of the communities we work with.
Learn more about our work in:
Research & Inquiry
Our research and inquiry explores innovative approaches to foster more thriving, just, and effective organizations and schools, and dismantle systems that slow down or threaten that change.
Our recent research projects include:
Our Values
In all of our interactions with each other, in our practices, policies, programs and services, ILI board members, employees, and associates strive to align with these shared values.
Accountability
We hold ourselves accountable to shared expectations. We accept mistakes, we value deep apology and earnest efforts to change.
Collaboration
We bring multiple perspectives and skills to decision-making, creating and problem-solving.
Curiosity
We earnestly seek to learn about and understand others’ perspectives, ideas and experiences.
Emergence
We understand that liberation is ongoing, and that ideas, ideologies, and artifacts must be subject to critique and change.
Grace
We see each other as fully human, each with vulnerabilities and strengths, worthy of kindness and compassion.
Integrity
We align our behavior at work and in public with the ILI mission and values.
Nonviolence
Our behavior affirms human complexity and avoids harm to people and planet.
Restoration
We seek to sustain nonviolent and productive community through restoring relationships rather than punitive practice.
Social Equity
We acknowledge systemic and historic inequities, and ensure equitable access to employment and resources provided by the ILI.
Transparency
Our policies, processes, and organizational documents are accessible to all ILI employees, Stewards, and supporters.
Land Acknowledgement
The ILI is a collaborative effort of people who live in the United States and Canada on the traditional lands of many native/first nation people, but our home office is located in what is now known as Vermont, USA.
We gratefully and humbly acknowledge that we are based on the un-ceded land of the Abenaki Nation, part of the Wabanaki Confederacy, and that the trauma of that dispossession continues. The Abenaki people have lived on and cared for this land and its inhabitants continually for over 12,000 years.