ESR believes that all people have the right to share equally in all aspects of community life.

The task of ESR services is to provide the support necessary for individuals to live, work, learn and recreate in the mainstream of community life. Experience offered through ESR will, to the greatest extent possible, enable interdependent and productive functioning within the community.

ESR will foster and promote the exercise of the right to self determination of all people, especialy those with disabilities and special needs. To these ends, ESR endorses the following concepts in order of importance:

Empowerment Consumers, their families and others they choose should be the primary decision makers in the planning and delivery of support services. ESR will promote the right of consumers and their selected representatives to choose services and the providers of those services.

Integration Services provided by ESR should enhance an integrated lifestyle. Each consumer should know and be known within their community as defined by them. Each person should have access to community resources available to citizens and to regular personal contact with individuals in the community who are not paid caregivers.

Economic Gain Vocational programs will be planned and delivered in a manner that enhances the economic position of each consumer within the parameters of the concepts listed above. Our practical approach is to provide supports that result in an increase in the amount of disposable income available to each consumer.

These concepts will be the driving ethical force in determining the direction taken by ESR in providing services.

ESR also recognizes its role in advocating for changes throughout the human community which will enhance more integrated lifestyles for people with disabilities and special needs. Too often, human service systems have held low expectations for persons "in service" and have isolated them from the rest of society, thereby reducting opportunities for learning and inclusion in the community. ESR will educate and inform the community-at-large of the importance of the principales stated above.

ESR will not accept artificial limits to each consumer's power, growth, and integration into the community.