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A Step Toward IndependenceCenters for Independent Living Can Help You Achieve Independence
The first step in regaining your independence after a disability is to locate your local Center for Independent Living. A CIL offers a wide variety of services to help.
Whether you are searching for a support system, looking for assistance in making your new home accessible, need help finding a job or just need to hire a PCA, your local CIL can help. A Center for Independent Living, or CIL as it is more commonly referred to, is just what the name implies: a center that helps individuals with disabilities to live as independently as possible. There are CILs all over the country, making finding one in or near your area a relatively easy task. To simplify this task even further, visit Virtual CIL, a comprehensive listing of Centers for Independent Living in all 50 states. HistoryAccording to its website, the Center for Independent Living in Berkeley, CA, was the first CIL in the world. It began in the late 1960’s as the Physically Disabled Students Program with a small group of students at the University of California at Berkeley. These students were determined to make the whole of the academic programs and social life that was offered on campus more accessible to them and to others. They soon realized that the only way to do this was with calculated and concentrated efforts on their part which was the only way to achieve the means to fully participate in campus life. With the help of some like-minded citizens of Berkeley, these students formally incorporated the Center for Independent Living in 1972. Today’s Centers for Independent Living have much the same values, principals and goals as Berkeley’s CIL. The mission of any CIL in the country is to help people with disabilities improve their lives and achieve their goals through independence. ServicesMost CILs offer the same core services. Some offer more and some offer less. But all the services that any CIL provides are designed with the goal of helping the person with a disability live a fuller, more independent life. Some of the services offered by different Centers for Independent Living include: Attendant Care – helping disabled persons locate, train and manage personal care attendants. Some CILs also offer services that pay all or part of the costs of attendant services. Advocacy – many CILs offer advocacy workshops to help disabled persons and their families learn self-advocacy. Peer Support – this service is most helpful to the newly disabled. It offers the opportunity for a person with a disability to speak with a CIL staff member with a disability in an effort to curb any feelings of alienation and to be able to commiserate with someone who shares the disability experience. Accessibility Counseling – some CILs offer this service to businesses in their community to help the businesses understand how they can better comply with the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act). Remember that not all Centers for Independent Living offer these services. They may offer similar services or something totally different. The surest way to find out if your local CIL offers what you need is to call and ask. If they can’t help you, they can often refer you to someone who can.
The copyright of the article A Step Toward Independence in Disabilities is owned by Megan Drummond. Permission to republish A Step Toward Independence in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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