Our Vision
Our Vision
Since inception, CLC has maintained the vision of its founders: we strive to create the best possible environment for each of its 145 consumers. CLC offered choices in living, in vacations and in employment to our consumers long before it was popular to do so. We teach consumers the skills they need to live as independently and safely as possible.
When someone first comes to CLC, we understand that we might need to tailor the program for that individual as his/her needs change and grow. We think of ourselves as a “big small agency” in which all consumers are known to the administrative team and can not get lost in our system.
In fact, the CLC Board of Directors does not want CLC to grow just for the sake of becoming larger – all additions and plans of growth are carefully reviewed to see if the change helps us in achieving our stated vision.
What this means to an individual consumer is that he or she is known to everyone in the agency; it means that we have remained small enough to quickly adapt and change to meet the challenges of our consumers. In simplest terms, if something makes sense for a consumer and it is possible to do, we do it!
We recognize that many of our consumers come to us with both developmental disabilities and psychiatric diagnoses as well. To meet this challenge we have created and implemented a Behavioral Mental Health Model and provide training to all staff that far exceeds all of the licensure mandated training. We train all of our residential support staff in this model and closely monitor their application of this approach.
Indeed, our evaluation of staff is now entirely focused on the degree to which the model is actually utilized in the residence. A given staff member’s advancement within CLC is directly tied to the understanding and application of our model. Conversely, someone would be asked to leave CLC if they could or would not embrace our philosophy. A motivated, enthusiastic, and well trained support staff is the cornerstone of any program. We view staff training as a dynamic undertaking that must include a clinical understanding of the people with whom they work.
