That independence be acquired in the most normal living situation possible is the belief on which all of Faye Clark's New Horizons' policies and procedures are predicated.

       Faye Clark's New Horizons is a program designed to enable developmentally disabled persons to develop their own capabilities toward living harmoniously in the community emphasizing on their individual strengths.

      The goal of independence for developmentally disabled individuals has long been recognized by the federal government, (1) and by local governmental agencies, as part of the Normalization Principle, proposed by Wolf Wolfensberger.

       An approach which identifies and develops those skills necessary for independent living can help a developmentally disabled person toward the goal of independence and increase the ability of those individuals to participate as inclusive members of a community.

       This approach would obviate programs which provide only life support service. Instead, all programs would aim toward growth and development of those skills necessary to achieve independence. For the developmentally disabled individual, this approach means that the services he receives will be designed to increase his level of functioning rather than maintain him on a certain and often permanent level of activity. "(2)

        Persons with a developmentally disability have the right to an existence and a style of life which parallels reality as the total population experiences it. Community living challenges the field of developmental disabilities because so few developmentally disabled people have been given the change to live successfully in the community. Persons excluded from the community because of their disabilities are left to dwell in regressive physical environments. Not only should disabled people be entitled to the "dignity of risk", but they should not be considered so different from others. What would enable the disabled person to live well in the community? He would need to develop survival skills or obtain resources from outside his own means to meet his needs for shelter, food, physical maintenance, and social living. To accomplish this he may need more than ordinary help. Faye Clark's New Horizons is focused on providing the supports needed to archive this.   

       Mastering independent skill development, emotional controls, intellectual growth and adaptive behaviors, within the framework of a program such as Faye Clark's New Horizons, will assure individuals with mental retardation and other developmental disabilities an avenue to full self-actualization perhaps for the first time in their lives.

       In the past, dependence on others has been fostered where the disabled person in concerned. This leads to totally unrealistic values, expectations, and attitudes on the part of the developmentally disabled person regarding his/her own role in the community.

        These so called 'unrealistic' attitudes may, however, merely reflect narrow experience, misinformation by those in control, and non-adaptive behavior by those of us working as professional planners and service providers.(3)

       Faye Clark's New Horizons is geared toward the lessening of the above mentioned attitudes and values and toward increasing public awareness about developmentally disabled persons.

        Many of Faye Clark's New Horizons' clients were at one time residents of  institutions. Others have lived at home where they were over-protected and experientially limited. Therefore, intensive training in independent living skills such as Faye Clark's New Horizons offers is necessary to help them become more autonomous.

       "The 'developmental model' , as describe by National Association for Retarded Citizens, promoted as responding best to the goals of normalization and community life, incorporates three basic assumptions:   a) Life is a process of change, and developmentally disabled people change as do the rest of us; b) development takes place in a sequential, orderly, and predicable manner; and c) the rate of development can be influenced. " (4)

        This is the premise on which Faye Clark's New Horizons bases it's philosophy.

(1) President's Committee on Mental Retardation, Washington, D.C. 20201, 1974
(2) New Neighbors, The Retarded Citizen in Quest of a Home, President's Committee on
     Mental Retardation, Washington, D.C. 20201, 1974
(3) Ibid
(4) Ibid