VAI has a strong commitment to participative planning. We believe that people support what they help to create. As a result, we see our role as facilitating and capacity building, rather than directing. Our goal is to see that clients make informed choices.

We see the components of each agency and the criminal justice system as inevitably linked. This "systems" orientation makes us equally comfortable with the development of facility and programmatic alternatives to dealing with criminal justice problems.

In working with clients, we use a "no surprises" approach in which clients review our work at each step of the way. This maximizes client feedback and sees that the end product is what the client needs and expects.