About CANDLE

Mission

CANDLE aims to reduce youth and adult substance use rates in Cortland County, NY by making prevention accessible to people of all abilities.

Vision

CANDLE envisions a future where all people have easy, equitable access to prevention services and live self-directed lives free from the challenges of substance misuse.

Values

CANDLE’s prevention work is guided by the models below.

SAMHSA’s Strategic Prevention Framework (SPF)

Substance use prevention practitioners often feel an urgent need to implement immediate solutions to the pressing problems facing their communities.

Research and experience have shown that prevention must begin with an understanding of these complex behavioral health problems within their environmental contexts. Only then can communities establish and implement effective plans to address substance use.

To facilitate this understanding, SAMHSA developed the Strategic Prevention Framework (SPF) in 2004. The five steps and two guiding principles of the SPF offer prevention practitioners a comprehensive, data-driven approach to 1) understanding and addressing substance use and related behavioral health problems in their communities, and 2) developing and sustaining effective prevention programs and practices.

You can find more information about the SPF on SAMHSA’s website.

The Independent Living (IL) philosophy

The Independent Living philosophy is the belief that people with disabilities have the same fundamental human and civil rights as people without disabilities to control and direct their own lives.

CANDLE’s fiscal sponsor and host site is Access To Independence of Cortland County, a federally recognized 501(c)3 and Center for Independent Living (CIL).

Under federal law, CILs are required to be:

• Consumer-controlled. CILs must be operated and governed by people with disabilities, with at least 51% of the Board of Directors and a majority of the staff comprised of individuals with disabilities.
• Cross-disability. CILs serve people of all ages with all types of disabilities.
• Nonresidential. CILs function as community resource and advocacy hubs rather than residential housing facilities.

For more information about Independent Living, check out ATI Cortland, NYAIL and NCIL.

Universal Design (UD)

Universal Design is the practice of designing products, buildings, technology, and environments so they can be accessed, understood, and used by people of all ages, abilities and backgrounds to the greatest extent possible without needing special adaptations or retrofits later.

Instead of adding accommodations as an afterthought or a separate fix for people with disabilities, UD bakes accessibility into the original design. When an environment or tool works better for people with disabilities, it becomes more convenient for everyone else too. For example, curb cuts don’t just improve the lives of wheelchair users – they help parents with strollers, travelers with luggage, and people with low vision too.

Read more about the 7 Principles of Universal Design here..