Values

The American Network of Community Options and Resources (ANCOR) affirms the following values, which represent the guiding principles for providing services and support to people with disabilities and enhancing their rights.

We who offer services and support to people recognize:

• That each individual should be offered opportunities to enhance and increase informed decisionmaking and opportunity for self-determination throughout a spectrum of expanding and continuing choices concerning:
  • where one lives and works,
  • services and supports one receives,
  • with whom one associates, and enrichment opportunities in which one participates.
• That as each individual changes, efforts continue to promote meaningful, ongoing participation by the individual and, as appropriate, that person's guardian, family members and/or friends in his or her life planning process;
• That as each individual is entitled to the full range of constitutional freedoms, including autonomy, dignity, the right to privacy and to representation as assured through the resolutions adopted by the United Nations in its 1971 "Declaration on the Rights of Mentally Retarded Persons" and its 1975 "Declaration on the Rights of Disabled Persons."

We who offer services and supports further recognize:

• That our role has evolved to one of facilitating the balance between individual choices and vulnerabilities;
• That our role in promoting full participation involves a reciprocal people-centered approach of respect and sensitivity for those involved;
• That we accept the shared responsibility in making affirmative efforts to advocate for systems change and gain necessary resources to benefit people;
• That we promote an optimal quality of life to increase:
  • self dependence
  • productivity
  • well-being and
  • inclusion