About                   

Pittsfield Listens Vision   All members of the Pittsfield community are empowered and engaged to help shape the future of the rural town we love.

Pittsfield Listens Mission   Pittsfield Listens encourages the power of youth, parent, family, and community voice on issues and policies that directly affect their education and their life, with a specific focus on engaging those who have historically been underrepresented. We support emerging youth and adults leaders through education, training, and participatory leadership development so that students succeed in the Pittsfield schools and beyond.

Pittsfield Listens: Working together to make Pittsfield a great place for everyone to live, learn, work, and play

Pittsfield Listens is...

1. Reclaiming, redesigning, and reinvigorating the way our community and its schools make progress

   1. Developing leaders and structures that ensure public participation

   2. Empowering grassroots changemakers to develop systems that work for everybody

2. Fostering relationships in both expected and unlikely places for positive change

   1. Meeting people where they live, learn, work, and play

   2. Bringing people together from all walks of life and ages across multiple perspectives and backgrounds

3. Roundtables, not podiums, for in-depth and engaged conversations

   1. Respecting differences as well as seeking common ground

   2. For a sense of mutually owned decisions and actions

Pittsfield Listens means …

1. Nurturing Leaders

   1. Families and students step-up to new levels of leadership in community and its schools--leaders emerge from anywhere.

   2. Encouraging the power of youth voice on issues and policies that directly affect their education and their life.

2. Promoting diversity and equity in race, class, gender

   1. Fear no longer plays a role: everyone is valued and included; processes are participatory

   2. Building bridges and learning from each other so that the systems work for everyone

3. Embracing creativity, openness to new ideas and new methods

   1. Tap the power of individuals’ stories to form a collective narrative about system-wide change

   2. Celebrating progress from all contributors