We are a federation, fostering creativity, community and citizenship for all. Our members are organisations and/or individuals that are committed to  this vision.
All are leaders in different fields.'Altrum' is a Gaelic word meaning 'to foster' and the organisation's development is currently focused on and in Scotland. All of our members need support and offer support to people so that they can lead their own lives, particularly people who require assistance with decision making.
We have a statement of values, and rules for membership, which guide how our organisation works.
Altrum:
- Does not take power or resources away from the people doing the job.
- Brings together a diverse group of people with a common set of objectives.
- Generates trust and through this it makes all forms of collaboration and joint action possible.
- that all members of our society are equally important and needed
- each of us is entitled to dignity and respect
- everyone has something to contribute to the community
- everyone is entitled to help from the community.
As a society, when we give people help it is vital that the help we give does not harm those receiving that help. In particular we should enable the person to develop as a person, to make choices, to be present in the community and to strengthen their relationships with family and friends. Support should help the person to remain a full citizen and should never result in a person losing their rights as a citizen simply because of their need for some help.
 The challenge for all members of Altrum is not just to espouse these values but to live by them. We know that human services are not an unmitigated good, and that they can always endanger the relationship between the individual and the community. So we will work to ensure that those we serve are supported in ways which promote:
Personal autonomy: Each of us needs our life to go in the direction that is right for us and which stems from our own individual character. We need to support people to make choices and take control over the course of their own lives.
Individual gifts: Each of us has our own individual strengths and gifts and those gifts enable us to make our own unique contribution to the lives of others. We need to acknowledge the gifts of those we serve and work for to ensure that that those gifts can be expressed and developed.
Community membership: We can only flourish if we are able to have access to the wide and varied opportunities that the community makes available to us. We need to work in ways that enhance the community’s competence at including and supporting people.
Community participation: We all need to be connected to others in the positive relationships that exist through love, family, friendship and  community. We need to ensure that the people we help are enabled to improve their sense of connection to others, in ways that are right for them.
Dignity and respect: We all have a right to the dignity that arises through being properly respected. We need to ensure that our help for others enhances their status in the eyes of others and that that help is respectful of the individual’s rights and essential dignity as a human being.
Living our values
Altrum’s members are guided in their work by core values or principles. At the same time we set out very clear and practical things which the members of Altrum must do, or must avoid doing, in order to ensure that they can live up to these ideals. These ‘rules’ are open to change and improvement if experience shows us better ways for determining that we are living the values.
All members must:
- agree to live by Altrum’s statement of values and in Control Scotland’s principles
- ensure that their support for people does not reduce their effective housing rights
- enable those they support to have their own home, choosing who they live with or to live alone.
- ensure that that each person that the organisation supports chooses the people who support him or her.
- ensure that they enable people to be active citizens who can work, learn and enjoy all that the community has to offer
- provide other members with any information on request, (that does not breach individual confidentiality), although the member who makes such a request will also provide some gift in return.
- although members can compete with one another, remember the requirement to share business information
- preserve and promote the Altrum identity and work, including the logo (and where reasonable the strap-line) on their letterhead and other promotional literature
- respect the unique history, qualities and starting points of member organisations and support each other with development
- work with an ‘accountability’ buddy member, to whom they will make an annual presentation describing their progress in living up to the statement of values.
Altrum is Scottish charity [No. SC 03165] and limited company. No. 200306, owned by, and accountable to, its members
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