Our Values
Community
Survivor-Led: Project Koru is proudly a survivor-led organization. That means our Ohana is a reflection of the people in it and is a safe space for survivors to be understood, to be heard, and to be leaders. Our vision is to create a world of empowered young adult cancer survivors, and we believe the best way to do that is by investing resources to help survivors help themselves and each other.
Equity & Inclusion: The goal of Project Koru’s Equity and Inclusion Committee is to better understand equitable needs in the AYA cancer community and create infrastructure, outreach and programs that are equitable and inclusive to all survivors, resulting in a feeling of belonging for all.
Adventure
To us, adventure means putting yourself out there. Whether you scale a mountain or go to a new yoga class, it counts! Adventure is defined less by the activity and more about taking a leap of faith to see what may be on the other side.
Sometimes we learn to surf. Other times we train to walk a 5K. But all times we learn to enjoy the journey, knowing we are stronger just for trying at all.
Empowerment
Empowerment can be tricky to define because what empowers one person may not empower the next.
For some, this means learning to trust their body again, so much so that they achieve things they never thought possible. For others, it’s using their vulnerability as strength to help incoming survivors navigate all the feelings that come with cancer. But that’s ok. The one constant is this: empowerment is teaching survivors that they have the power to use the things that have happened to them for good.
Project Koru works toward creating a world of empowered survivors by giving them a platform where their survivorship makes them strong, inspiring, and impactful leaders, and helps them to realize that they can turn pain into purpose.
Come step into your power
At Project Koru, we have a tradition of using "power names". The idea behind power names is to give yourself permission to leave behind life's stressors and allow yourself to step into a persona that makes you feel powerful!
The only rules are your power name cannot be a version of your real name, and it can't be a nickname you've used before. It can be anything that makes you feel good, happy, strong, etc. Join us by stepping into your best self and coming up with your very own power name!
Dr. Four, Camp 27
As a four-time cancer survivor, choosing Four as a power name seemed a no brainer. When I thought more deeply about its meaning, I recalled a character from the Divergent film series named Tobias. He was called Four because he had only four fears, which he needed to accept in order to escape his past. Like Tobias, I see four battles with cancer as something I need to accept or embrace without fear in order to move forward with my life. I'm still working on this, and in the process of fighting cancer and moving on, I completed my PhD--so now I also answer to Dr. Four. :-) Snow Camp with PK certainly inspired me to choose the perfect power name!
