Top 10 Ways to Ruin a Center for Independent Living

Dick Goodwin

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DOI: 10.2190/XDTV-PUVQ-0U36-DK9E

Abstract

Centers for Independent Living (CILs) are organizations created, directed, and managed by people with disabilities. The first CIL was established in Berkeley, California in 1972, a time of rapid social change and extensive social activism in the United States. The original mission of CILs was to advocate for barrier removal, equal opportunity and social change, and to provide peer support to persons newly disabled. Today, many leaders in CILs do not understand the movement s rich history, and CILs are at risk of becoming very social-service oriented instead of advocacy and peer-support oriented.

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