About us - AQST

Vision and mission

Vision
A Quebec society that is mobilized and committed to improve the quality of life of people with Tourette Syndrome.

Mission
Founded more than 25 years ago and incorporated in 1994, the Association québécoise du syndrome de la Tourette is a non-profit organisation (the only one covering the whole province with services in French specific to Tourette syndrome) working for the persons with Tourette syndrome, their families and their various service providers – health, school, social, community… The Association’s mission is the following:

support, inform and recognize the value of people with TS
support inform and train people that lives with and helps a person with TS
increase awareness among the population

The Association’s users, members, volunteers, bord members and employees must be
acquainted with this mission and take it to heart in all the Association’s actions.

Values

Autonomy
The Association believes in the people’s capacity to evolve and develop. That is why it works hard to help them grow, understand the nature of the syndrome and face difficulties that may arise because of the Tourette syndrome.

Through its actions, the Association reinforces and values the self-confidence of its members and their capacity to deal with their situation, their environment, their community and society. It plays on the transmission of knowledge to people with TS and those around them, that can then recharge and become resources for others.

The Association recruits members and promotes their commitment and their participation in sharing problems and needs, as well as choosing objectives and how to meet them. In doing so, the Association fosters information circulation, honest and transparent communication, as well as participation to the decisions that affect them.

Respect
The Association’s approach translates into tolerance and openness, where negative judgements are absent and respect for the others’ reflexions or thoughts is always present. This approach is also based on compassion and solicitude towards everyone touched by TS’s multiple layers of manifestations.

The Association offers support for its members, either people with TS or those around them, to realize their own worth and learn how use it. This support provides a live social reality that fosters, favors and stimulates everyone’ self awareness, openness, identification and existence.

Solidarity
The Association’s members create linkages for mutual aid and actions towards increasing the quality of life conditions and decreasing isolation of people with TS, using common interests.

Believing in the pros and benefits of partnerships, the Association maximises strategic alliances and contributions of both sides. The Association creates openings for partnerships in recognizing the value of diversity of views and experiences. Solidarity is the driver to a moral obligation not to harm others. It grows in concert with responsibility.