Our Mission: Creating Opportunities / Supporting Success
We seek to create opportunities for each consumer, and by supporting them in a respectful manner, we support the successes they have in reaching for their dreams.
Our Vision: Individuals Choosing the Lives they Live
It's all about choice.
Peak Community Services Values
Peak Community Services supports persons with developmental disabilities. It’s all about what is important to them. Your day will not always be easy, but the more you rely on our values and put emphasis on the things most important to the person you support, your day will certainly be worthwhile.
During your workday, you will see two posters everywhere. These posters outline the Peak Community Services values. They are in every building. It's important that you not just see the values posted on a wall but that you live these values.
There are 54 million Americans with disabilities. This is one of the largest minority groups in the country, and this is the only minority group that offers an open invitation to anyone to join. By the grace of illness, accident or aging, any one of us could join this minority group at any time. When you realize how easy it is to join that minority group, and that it could be your mother, it could be your brother, it could be you receiving support, perhaps these values will become really important to you.
Values Relative To Service
Respect: Each consumer is a valued person. We will support each person as he or she reaches for their dreams. Consumers are to be treated with dignity. Interactions are to be appropriate for the chronological age of the person served. Inherent in respecting the individual is a respect for the diverse backgrounds, cultures, and values with which each person enriches our organization.
Inclusion: Persons served are to be given the opportunity to work, live, and plan leisure time in settings where a majority of the participants are persons without disabilities. The level of inclusion the person wishes to experience is a decision to be made solely by that person. Individuals will vary in the level of inclusion with which they are comfortable. The level of inclusion may change over time, and services and supports are to reflect the current level of inclusion chosen by the person served.
Choice: Persons who choose Peak Community Services have choices open to them in relation to work, living, and recreation programs and settings. Every person is assumed to have the capability of living and working independently, the degree of independence realized is the choice of the person served. The choice of the person concerning their level of involvement, location of services and supports, staff, and other factors will be honored to the extent feasible within the rules, regulations, and standards by which the organization must operate.
Equality: Persons who choose Peak Community Services are equal partners with staff as they pursue their dreams. Staff interactions, choices offered, and the way services and supports are provided are to be conducted on the basis of equal partners working together to achieve the dreams of the person served.
Opportunities: Each individual who chooses Peak Community Services shall be provided with the option of selecting real opportunities for personal growth and self-expression. Paid work, integrated settings, typical routines and tasks are all a part of offering the person served real experiences that enable the person to realize their dreams.
Values Relative to Staff
Communicating: We value what we have to share with one another. We value the lessons we can learn from one another. We value the interactions we have with one another and with those we serve on a daily basis. We demonstrate this value by sharing ideas, interacting with one another in a positive and respectful manner, and by using the various tools of communication provided by the agency to achieve and enhance the agency’s mission.
Learning: We believe that everyone who chooses our services has the ability to become residentially and vocationally independent. We believe that every person who joins this organization is committed to doing the best job possible. We believe that every staff person will learn new skills, use new technology, and further their knowledge in ways that will enable the achievement of our mission. In creating a learning environment, we believe that those who provide services learn as much as those to whom they are provided. We demonstrate our commitment to learning by supporting choice, taking reasonable risks, sharing what we learn, and supporting one another in making new choices and traveling new paths.
Partnership: We are committed to the concept of working with one another as equal partners. We will respect the dignity, privacy, and rights of those we support as well as those with whom we work. We will seek to support the achievements of all consumers and the goals and achievements of all who work here. We will honor the individuality of everyone that is a part of this organization while working together to achieve the personal goals of those served and the organizational goals of Peak Community Services. We demonstrate this value by working as equals with those who chose our services. We demonstrate this value by doing things with the consumers as opposed to doing things for or to them.
Friendship: We believe that the work environment should be one that encourages friendships between those who work here and those who choose our services. We believe that the most positive and productive work environment is created when friends work together. By creating an atmosphere of friendship, we believe that differences of opinion can be dealt with in a more positive way as we encourage a diversity of approaches to our daily activities.’
It’s the Person: We are a human service business. We are here for the purpose of creating opportunities and supporting success for people with disabilities. The focus of our organization is on the people who choose our services balanced with good business practices that allow the people served to achieve their goals while the agency thrives and grows. We put the person before any disability in our language, in our expectations, and in the opportunities we offer.
How Do We Show Respect & Dignity?
- We assist consumers in exercising their rights.
- We respect consumers' privacy.
- We support the consumer in making sure that their grooming and hygiene and dress is appropriate for the situation.
- We use "person first" language.
- We speak to people in respectful tones and volume.
- We use please and thank you.
- We understand the importance of offering choices.
- We understand the difference between a "house" and a "home."
- We walk with rather than lead.
- We provide models and supports that allow consumers to speak for themselves.
- We use age appropriate names for consumers, not "kids," "girls," "boys," "honey," "sweetie," etc.
- We understand that a "meaningful day" consists of purposeful activities designed to increase the level of functioning and the quality of life for the consumer.
- We know that "informed choice" assures the consumer is given information in an understandable manner about available options to make a choice based on personal preferences.
Final Quote
"I've sat in this courthouse for five hours listening to people talk about me. The lawyers and social workers would say 'poor little Jessie can't do this, poor little Jessie can't do that.' I'm saying that poor litle Jessie can do a lot more for himself than what people THINK poor little Jessie can do." Quote from Jessie Davis, speaking to the judge handling a competency hearing in regard to his guardianship.
