Mission

Empower Oregon families experiencing disability in their pursuit of a whole life by expanding awareness, growing community, and equipping families.

Vision

Families have high expectations and a vision for the future where all communities are accessible, welcoming, and embrace that disability is natural.

Statement of Principles

FACT Oregon empowers families and transforms how communities perceive disability. Our peer support, trainings, and resources equip and empower families, transform how they see disability, and help them have high expectations and dream big dreams for their children. We draw on the lived experience of our team, many themselves parents of youth experiencing disability, and call out the critically important role of parent/caregiver as a child’s number one fan and advocate.  

FACT Oregon holds that disability is a natural part of the human condition and that people experiencing it have the right and ability to create fulfilling, whole, self-determined lives. We appreciate that parents/caregivers are subject matter experts on their children and are best equipped to help set a north star and a positive trajectory for their lives when they are supported to do so. We educate families on how to advocate, navigate systems, and build communities in which their children thrive. We believe in inclusion and that we are all part of a larger, diverse community in which everyone has strengths and something to contribute. We strive to create supports that are accessible to all families, with the idea that no child or family should feel alone. We believe that systems should empower families rather than frustrate or impede, and we work towards that goal. We believe ableism must be addressed and dismantled and that there is no such thing as “too disabled” for self-determination. We believe that, with imagination and creativity, families can discover the right supports to increase their children’s independence and make a whole life possible. Families we support will realize that messy, full, self-determined, independent lives, with real relationships in communities is possible.