What is CSA?

Community Support Advocates (CSA) is a cooperative effort of Mainstream Living, Progress Industries, and The Homestead. Our program was formed to assist persons with mental illness, mental retardation, or other developmental disabilities in gaining access to appropriate housing, needed medical services, and interrelated social, vocational, and educational services.

These services are driven by consumer choice, with a focus on individualized community services and supports, and maximum community integration.

Our Mission, Vision and Values...

Mission: Partnering with persons with disabilities to guarantee opportunities and choices for success.

Vision: To provide the highest quality planning, supports and services.  To set the standards for creativity and teamwork for human service providers.

Values: To challenge, respect, empower, support and trust.

CHALLENGE- Be positive and build on the strengths of the people we serve. We believe that persons with a disability and their families have competencies, capabilities, and personal goals that should be recognized, supported, and encouraged.  We will challenge each person served to achieve the best possible life. But, we must also challenge ourselves to act responsibly and provide the highest quality service possible. We have responsibilities to our member agencies, the tax payers, and to the community.  We are asked to undertake efforts to maintain or expand community-based living and service options for individuals with disabilities.  These efforts need to be monitored and we must challenge ourselves to improve existing services and develop creative options whenever possible.

RESPECT- Be personal and professional. We believe our services should be provided in an individualized manner, consistent with the unique strengths, resources, priorities, concerns, abilities, and capabilities of the individuals that we serve.  We are people working with people and we need to build relationships of trust, but we must also remain professional and objective and act in an ethical manner.  Our services, supports, and other assistance will be provided in a manner that demonstrates respect for individual dignity, personal preferences, and cultural differences.  We will make specific efforts to ensure that individuals from religious, racial, ethnic diverse backgrounds enjoy increased and meaningful opportunities to access and use community services, individualized supports, and other forms of assistance available to any person with a disability. 

EMPOWER- Share both power and responsibility. We believe the people we serve and, where indicated, their families should be the primary decision-makers regarding the services and supports that they receive, and they must play decision-making roles in policies and programs that affect the lives of such individuals and their families.  With every decision is responsibility; our job is to make sure the persons served and their families know their options and can make decisions knowing the possible outcomes.  We will help each person we serve to make their own informed choices.

SUPPORT- Believe in the person's potential and recognize our role to provide the supports needed. We believe that persons with a disability are capable of self-determination, independence, productivity, and integration and inclusion in all facets of community life, and may require community services, individualized supports, and other forms of assistance. We will work with each person served to develop the supports and opportunities that they need for success. While being cognizant of the health, welfare and safety of the people we serve. At a minimum the people we serve should be safe and well cared for.  We must be vigilant in our responsibility to look out for the welfare of the people we serve.  We must provide for safe and appropriate services, supports and programs.  Finally, we must be responsive and act when the health, welfare or safety of a person served is at risk.

TRUST - Have faith that each person served will rise to the occasion and make choices that will help them to succeed. We believe our role is to encourage community involvement, integration and inclusion and show every person served that there is a place and a role for them.  We believe we do not have a person to waste; everyone is enriched by full and active participation in community activities.  We need to ensure that persons with a disability have access to opportunities and the necessary support to be included in community life, have interdependent relationships, live in homes and communities, and make contributions to their families, communities, State, and the Nation.