Mission statement

 
"We are the Expertise Centre par excellence concerning Independent Living. Our goal is the empowerment of people with disabilities so that we may lead an independent life. We focus primarily on direct payments."

  In Flanders this means we focus on the Personal Assistance Budget (PAB) and the Personal Budget (PGB).

 

Common vision

With direct payments, people with disabilities are granted a budget so that they are able to organize their support independently of others.

This should become an option for all people with disabilities, not only for people with a physical disability.

We strongly believe in the input of people who have lived experience with disability.
In this way, we acknowledge the importance of peer counseling. This is sharing of expertise by people who experience on a daily basis what it means to live with a handicap.
We also promote colleague-to-colleague advice. This is an exchange of information and advice between people who find or have found themselves in a similar kind of situation.

We fight against the discrimination of people with disabilities.

 

Direct payments

We promote working with direct payments, in which to folowing elements are of importance:

1. The financing of the support benefits to the individual with disabilities and not the providers of support.
2. Users are free to determine the amount of control over the support that corresponds to their needs, abilities, actual living conditions, preferences and planning. 
3. This freedom of choice includes also the right to determine the content of the support yourself, which implies that the user decides who works as an assistant, for what tasks, at which time and which places, and how the providing of assistance should happen.