Mission, Vision, Values

Laughing elderly coupleThe Olympic Area Agency on Aging (O3A) exists to help elderly individuals and persons with disabilities maintain their dignity, health, and independence in their homes through a comprehensive and coordinated system of home and community-based services.

The federal Older Americans Act provides O3A with the authority to deploy six broad operational strategies to advance its mission. These strategies include:

  • advocacy, which encompasses O3A’s responsibility to represent the needs and concerns of older people in the policy, program, and budget development processes at the local, state and federal levels, as well as their needs and concerns arising from service delivery;
  • the dissemination of consumer information and the conduct of public education activities;
  • the procurement of local services through performance-based contract mechanisms;
  • the provision of coordination and technical assistance to community-based entities and other stakeholder organizations that affect aging services, policies and programs throughout the service region;
  • planning and program development, based on local community assessment and including the application of evidence-based program and service models that improve quality-of-life and enhance the delivery of health and human services at the community level; and
  • oversight of its programmatic and fiscal responsibilities.

O3A believes that dignity is inherent to all individuals in our society, and that older and disabled people should have the opportunity to fully participate in all aspects of society and community life, be able to maintain their health and independence, and remain in their own homes, supported by their communities, for as long as they choose to do so.

O3A is guided by a set of core values in developing and carrying out its mission. These values include:

  • listening to older people, their family caregivers, and our partners who serve them;
  • responding to the changing needs and preferences of our increasingly diverse and rapidly growing elderly population;
  • producing measurable outcomes that significantly impact the well-being of older people and their family caregivers; and
  • valuing and developing our staff.