1. A resident-centered home commits to co-creating a community where each person’s life is as rich and wide as they want it to be.
2. A resident-centered community creates an environment that helps reduce the experience of loneliness, helplessness and boredom that commonly afflict people living with disabilities and living in isolation.
3. The opportunity to give as well as to receive care fosters dignity, worth and respect.
4. A lifelong learning community allows daily life to include variety and spontaneity within a safe collaboratively built context.
5. Meaningful activity is essential to human health and well-being, and is fostered through opportunities for paid and volunteer work, recreation, social participation and creative arts.
6. Person-centered support responds to the needs of the individual and takes into account the person’s preferences, privacy, culture, beliefs and personal growth.
7. A resident-centered community honors its residents and care partners through its commitment to collaborative decision-making.
8. Collaborative and democratic decision-making includes evolving systems, programs and policies along with the changing needs of the community, and seeking to empower residents or those closest to them with the maximum possible decision-making authority.
9. Co-creating a nurturing community is an ongoing process dependent on open and non-judgmental communication, with support to learn and use these communication skills.
10. Wise collaborative leadership, shared goals and a commitment to stewardship of self, others and home are the building blocks of an evolving resident-centered community.