On September 1, 2015, ARISE Mentors was granted certification to operate in the State of Oregon as a Provider Organization in the Developmental Disabilities system.

This was the culmination of over a year of preparations and decisionmaking that we hope will position us to be a premier provider of support services to the developmentally disabled community in Oregon. Our philosopy is spelled out in our name:

A=Ability
R=Results
I=Independence
S=Support
E=Experience

Ability: No one knows what a persons ability is until people give them a chance to try. We believe in empowering people to see what their abilities are by exploring what they can do. We think of this as being true of ourselves, our employees, and our customers.

Results: We also strive to produce outcomes with clients beyond mere attendant services. Our workers are not paid buddies. They are professionals with a goal of helping our clients move ahead in their lives.

Independence: Our goal is to help individuals become more and more independent through the acquisition of skills. As with all other aspects of our philosophy, we apply this to ourselves, our employees, and our customers.

Support: To us, support doesn’t mean that we do things for people that they can do for themselves. It means that we provide the help that each individual needs to accomplish goals and move forward. We support our employees and expect their support in return. We also support our customers and expect our employees to do so also.

Experience: Think of experience in two ways.

Firstly, our co-directors have a combined 35+ years of experience in the developmental disabilities system in Oregon, working with individuals to realize their goals. We seek for employees that bring their own experience to add to ours to offer our customers the best support possible. We build on the experience of our customers.

Secondly, we think that  supported experience is the best way to learn, so we teach by providing learning experiences that extend a person’s reach. Our customers learn by the experiences we support them in. Our employees learn by experience how to improve their skills as mentors. Our co-directors learn by the experiences we have daily with our employees and customers.

We look forward to serving our community by lifting individuals up, including ourselves.