Every human enterprise needs a philosophy. The word shouldn't intimidate: every person is a philosopher, whether he knows it or not. Each of us holds a vision of what it means to be human, what we value, what life and society are for.
Our philosophy—our vision of the human person—is rooted in faith. It places human dignity at the absolute center. That dignity is so great it transcends the individual himself. This is why every effort, every ounce of energy spent to preserve even one degree of that dignity, to grant the person—seen whole and complete—ever greater freedom from impediment and constraint, is beyond price.
Every person has the right to develop and express the fullness of their potential
Moreover, we are social beings. A disabled person's struggles inevitably touch the whole family. So while Nostra Famiglia works to bring out the best of what it means to be human in a disabled individual, we pay equal attention to the family itself. We take on their existential struggles and share them, so that we might restore or secure the happiness and joy of living that everyone deserves.To make these principles real, we have developed five clear guidelines:
First, our philosophy is not fatalistic. Our Christian roots won't permit it. And so it is not pessimistic. Pessimism can sometimes give rise to acts of charity, but it is a charity that does not truly help.
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OPTIMISM gives rise to charity filled with hope.
Second, grounded in that optimistic outlook, we believe that help—to be real—must be competent, effective, and suited to our times. Competent help is a form of respect for the dignity of the person in need and for those who serve them. Competence has many faces. It can mean modern equipment and high professional skill. But it can also mean something that looks less important yet is equally vital: suitable spaces, order, punctuality, honesty, clarity, and willingness. These too are marks of true competence.
Third, we hold that every person has the right to develop and express the fullness of their potential.
This is not mere strategy; it is an existential claim. Sometimes such potential seems minimal, and people shake their heads at our efforts to realize it. Such people are surely pessimistic philosophers. But every person has the right to fulfill themselves to the degree they can. No one can say when that degree is "too small."
If reaching that potential costs dearly, we must not flinch. After all, humanity spends vast resources on weapons to destroy one another. We should have no scruples about spending time and money to kindle even the smallest flame of life. Those resources are well spent.
Fourth, we avoid easy, one-size-fits-all solutions. Such approaches rarely honor the person. This work demands patience and the closest attention to each individual case.
Finally, we place great faith in research—a dimension too often absent from this field. That absence has a simple cause: it flows not from the difficulty of the work but from how little attention we pay to the disabled person.
When resources and effort are invested in any sector, results follow. In ours, we have invested poorly and not enough.
A simple philosophy for a complex problem, someone might say. But history teaches that this pairing has worked countless times.
- Dr. Zaira Spreafico, 1990