About - ACR Homes | Voted a Top Workplace in MN for 6 Years! Voted #1 by Employees Twice! Skip to content

About ACR Homes

A Top Workplace for ALL employees!

ACR is committed to ensuring exceptional care for the people with disabilities we support and we are also committed to ensuring an exceptional work experience for ALL employees. We commit to be a workplace free of racism and discrimination where all employees feel safe at work. We commit to ensuring the needs of all employees are being addressed and that diversity and inclusion is celebrated throughout our organization for both staff and residents.

We are proud to say that ACR was voted the #1 workplace by employees in both 2014 and 2016 in the Star Tribune Top Workplaces survey and we have been in the Top 12 for all 6 years of participation. What does it mean for ACR to be named the top workplace in Minnesota?  It means that we, by which we mean direct care staff, supervisors, RNs, office and maintenance employees, and all of the other people employed at ACR, have created the best workplace in Minnesota.  Being named top workplace is a direct result of the high quality work and positivity everyone exemplifies throughout ACR.

Residential Disability Care

ACR provides residential support services for people with physical and developmental disabilities, as well as care for the elderly including memory care through our affiliated company Arthur’s Senior Care.

Jim and Dorothy Nelson opened the first ACR home in 1981 for six students with autism who were graduating from high school. Based on their personal experience living and working with people with disabilities, they developed a unique philosophy of care on which all ACR staff are trained. This philosophy is embodied right in the name, "ACR," which stands for Acceptance, Communication and Respect.

They recognize that people with disabilities have the same needs for acceptance as people without disabilities, and that we are all communicating all the time - any limitations on the ability to speak or write does not mean a person cannot communicate. Respect is conveyed in the way we speak and listen, attend to cues, appreciate, support and respond to each person's communication style.

ACR currently supports over 200 individuals in over 50 homes throughout the five-county Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area. Each home reflects the tastes, interests, and special needs of the people we support there. We strive to create a warm and inviting atmosphere in each home.

ACR has an outstanding reputation for providing consistent, high-quality services. Our commitment to quality requires high standards for staffing, with a thorough and detailed hiring and training process and excellent supervision and support.

 

Our Core Values

It is ACR’s core belief that all human life is intrinsically valuable. The value of life is not diminished because a person is disabled, unborn or near the end of life. Value is not determined by whether the person is independent or totally dependent on others. It is not based on productivity or on physical or intellectual potential or accomplishments. Value is not dependent on whether a person has family relationships or friendships. It is not contingent on being wanted, loved or admired. Human life is intrinsically valuable and worthy of dignity and respect simply because it exists.

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History

ACR Homes was founded by Jim and Dorothy Nelson, who utilized their own personal experience living and working with people with disabilities to develop their model of care.

ACR opened its first home in 1981 for six students who were graduating from high school who needed assistance in meeting their care needs. The second ACR home opened in 1989, and began a period of growth that lead to our focus in caring for people with multiple medical needs.

We currently serve people in all walks of life:  those who require assistance due to injury or disease, those who require total assistance, those who are more independent but still need 24 hour assistance, and those who have behavioral challenges.