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A community rehabilitation service is the unique combination of a rehabilitation agency and a "free enterprise" business. The rehabilitation service aspect is inherent in the purposes for which each facility exists. The business side is present not only from the standpoint of the organization being financially solvent, but more importantly, from the view that "real work" is the therapeutic tool through which rehabilitation is accomplished.

Sometimes inappropriately referred to as sheltered workshops, because they have provided long-term employment for certain severely disabled persons, rehabilitation services in Idaho have, since their inception, offered programs that placed people with disabilities into competitive employment and provided training and employment opportunities at various industrial sites. Community rehabilitation programs have offered training and employment programs that were "facility-based" because these programs better met the needs of the persons being served. The "facility-based" programs were not, however, the only programs used. Identifying community rehabilitation services with only one or two programs is as inaccurate a process as the term sheltered workshop is and inaccurate description of the service delivery capability of Idaho's rehabilitation programs.