Centers for Independent Living believe in advocating, educating, and empowerment for a fully inclusive community. Every CIL follows these standards.
- We are Consumer Driven
- We Advocate
- We offer Peer Mentoring
- We believe in Equal Access
- We are Cross Disability
- We are Community Based
51 % of a CILs staff and board are people with a disability. A CIL is consumer driven in their decision-making, service delivery, and in establishing where the center is headed.
CIL believe advocating for your rights to become more empowered. Advocacy in the community can inform leaders of challenges we face, and it can lead to a change towards inclusion.
Because CILs are consumer driven relationships can be formed between the staff and the consumers. Chances are someone on the staff has faced similar issues that are presented by our consumers.
We believe that individuals who have disabilities should have equal access in their community. They should have access to all the communities’ services, programs, resources, and facilities.
We are cross disability and serve individuals with any type of disability. The staff also must also represent the differing disabilities in the community.
CILs are community based meaning the center’s staff and board live in the communities they serve. Our services and advocacy originate based on the needs of the community.
Community involvement is a huge part of a CIL. We want the community to know that people who have disabilities are community members, neighbors, and tax payers. Most importantly we are People First.
