Guiding Principles

Guiding Principles

FOCUS believes that community service organizations are in a continuous state of learning, improvement and change. Accreditation is a way of validating an organizations progress and ability to meet standards. When an organization is accredited, people who use services have an assurance of quality, and can feel confident that the organization is committed to continuous improvement.

MANDATE
FOCUS accreditation provides accreditation services, as a tool for improving the quality of community service organizations across Canada.

VISION
Organizations will be supported to continuously improve the quality of the services they provide, through an accreditation process that focuses on results for people, organizational excellence and community development.

MISSION
To provide a comprehensive, innovative and holistic accreditation process that is grounded in Canada's cultural diversity, expectations, needs and capacity.

ORGANIZATIONAL OBJECTIVES
FOCUS will encourage continuous quality improvement and organizational learning by providing:
  • an accreditation process that reflects the expectations and needs of Canadians.
  • standards that reflect international research on successful service delivery
  • accreditation services for all community service organizations
  • a forum for sharing ideas and information
  • an unbiased, comprehensive assessment of the quality of an organization's services