Centers for Independent Living: Quick Facts
Centers for Independent Living (CILs) are nonprofit organizations run by and for people with disabilities, their families, friends, and advocates. CILs are community-based, non-residential places of action and coalition where people with disabilities develop skills and increase empowerment so that they can live and work independently in the communities of their choice.
What do CILs Do?
Centers for Independent Living provide services and advocacy to promote the leadership, independence, and productivity of people with disabilities.
Centers work directly with individuals with disabilities and on behalf of them, advocating in local communities to remove barriers to independent living and ensure equality.
All CILs provide the following core services to individuals:
- Advocacy
- Peer Counseling
- Independent Living Skills Training
- Information and Referral
- Transition Services
CILs also provide additional services to the community:
- Systems Change Advocacy
- Disability Awareness
- Community Education
- Technical Assistance
- Information and Referral
In addition to the core services listed above, CILs offer a wide variety of additional programs such as housing or shelter assistance, personal assistance services, transportation referral and assistance, physical therapy, mobility training, rehabilitation technology, recreation, and more.
Use the Explore My Community tool to learn what is available at your local Center for Independent Living.
Independent living means that individuals with disabilities are provided with all necessary means to enable them to exercise choice and control over their lives and make all decisions concerning their lives.
Independent living is an essential part of the individual’s autonomy and freedom and does not necessarily mean living alone. It should also not be interpreted solely as the ability to carry out daily activities by oneself. Rather, it should be regarded as the freedom to choose and control, in line with the respect for inherent dignity and individual autonomy.
Independence as a form of personal autonomy means that the person with disability is not deprived of the opportunity of choice and control regarding personal lifestyle and daily activities. (Source: The UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities)
The Independent Living (IL) movement started in the early 70s when the Berkeley Center for Independent Living in California was founded by Ed Roberts and others with disabilities who were attending the University of California at Berkeley.
Ed, who was a post-polio quad, was living in a hospital and was required to be back in his room by 10 PM. He was denied the right to make many of the basic decisions college students took for granted. So, with the help of some federal funding, Ed started the first Center for Independent Living (CIL). The Center focused on assisting people with disabilities to live in the community with whatever supports they needed.
Today, there are over 400 Centers for Independent Living throughout the United States. (Source: NILP “The History of the Independent Living Movement”)
Virginia Department for Aging and Rehabilitative Services (DARS) oversees 17 regional Centers for Independent Living (CILs). The mission of DARS is to improve the employment, quality of life, and independence of older Virginians, Virginians with disabilities, and their families.