From One Voice: Spring 2024
By Mark Dodd | CEO, One Vision

Living your best life. What does this mean to you? Everyone has a different answer. This is the focus of this summer 2024 edition of the OneVoice. As CEO I’d like to expand on this further from the perspective of our mission and values. In 2023 the Board of Directors approved the following updated mission for One Vision: “We stand with and support people with disabilities to pursue their best life.” They also approved the new mission-aligned values of Solidarity, Confident Humility, and Relentless Disruption. For me, the two most important words in our mission are ‘to pursue.’ There is no guarantee for anyone that we will be able to achieve living our best life; the most we can hope for is to have the opportunity to define for ourselves what it means to live our best life AND can choose the steps to take to pursue it.

Every time we have created an opportunity for individuals with disabilities to move out of institutions, whether these were state institutions or our cottages, the individuals have said, overwhelmingly, they like their new “home” better. The reasons are clear for them. They have more independence and control of their lives; to go to bed and get up when they want, open their own mail, and pick what they want to eat—decisions previously made for them in institutions.

Did they lose certain things because of these moves? Yes, of course. Just as for any of us, there is a trade-off when we choose to make a change. We hope what we gain has greater meaning or value than what we lose. The point here is about the choice to take that risk. Sometimes the risks we take work out and sometimes they don’t, no matter the risk: friendships, marriages, job changes, or moving to a new neighborhood or community. Persons with disabilities also want to have the right and dignity to decide for themselves if they choose to take a risk.

As is evident from our mission, One Vision strives to support each person we serve so they can choose to pursue their best life. One Vision accomplishes this by standing with them in solidarity to amplify their voices and champion their choices. We support them with confident humility by listening to their wants and desires and using our expertise to support them. Finally, we use relentless disruption to challenge any limitations imposed on the people we support to make their own informed decisions and to advance social justice for persons with disabilities.