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About
Us
Mission
Statement
Who
We Serve
Staff
Board of Directors
Consumer
Advisor Committee
Volunteers
Independent Living Centers
at a Glance
Our
Mission
Independent Living Resources is committed
to community diversity through advocacy, choice
and education resulting in empowerment for
individuals with disabilities.
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Counties
We Serve: Buffalo, Crawford, Grant,
Iowa, Jackson, Juneau, La Crosse, LaFayette,
Monroe, Richland, Sauk, Trempealeau,
Vernon
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Who
We Serve
Independent
Living Resources will provide services to
persons with any disability of any age within
our service area. Most services have no eligibility
requirements and are available at no cost
to the consumer. Examples of disabilities
served are as follows:
- Mental
illness
- Developmental/cognitive
- Physical
- Learning
disability
- Brain
injury
- Stroke
and cancer survivors
- Respiratory
- Environmental
sensitivity
- HIV/AIDS
- Deaf
- Blind
- Low
vision
- Hard
of hearing
(This list is not all-inclusive)
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Board of Directors
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Independent Living Resources’ Board of Directors is made up of a maximum of twelve individuals who reside within the thirteen counties which make up the agency's service area. As per Independent Living philosophy (as well as contractural agreement) the board strives to maintain a membership which is composed of a minimum of 51% people with disabilities.
In this sense, an Independent Living Center follows a cooperative or credit union model. Those people who control the services are the same people who utilize the services.
Our present board of directors:
Mike De Yoe -- President
Kim Cable -- Vice President
Sarah Havens -- Treasurer
Kris Geiwitz
Carol Boland
Anne Sheldon
Diane Burgette
Gary Kleinertz
Tess Dammen-Olsen
Michael McGowan
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Consumer
Advisory Committee
The Consumer Advisory
Committee is being reorganized at this time.
Please contact us if you have an interest
in this committee, and watch this space for
future development.
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Volunteers
If
you'd like to volunteer, please contact advocacy@ilresources.org.
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Independent
Living Centers at a Glance
A Fact Sheet from the National Council
of Independent Living
What
are Independent Living Centers?
Independent Living Centers (ILCs) help people
with disabilities achieve or maintain more
self-sufficient and productive lives in their
communities. People with disabilities are
assisted in exploring alternatives to institutionalization
and are encouraged to make their own decisions
about how they will live. ILCs directly provide
or coordinate through referral those services
which assist people in increasing their abilities
to exercise control over their lives. Control
over one's life means having a choice of acceptable
options that minimize reliance on others in
making decisions and performing every day
activities. This includes managing one's own
affairs, participating in day-to-day community
life and fulfilling a range of social roles.
How
are ILCs Unique?
Within the Independent Living Movement there
is a strong belief that peer-conducted services
are essential to assisting a person with a
disability. Therefore, in ILCs, 51% or more
of the staff and board of directors are people
with disabilities who have personally experienced
attitudinal, physical and communication barriers.
Their experiences have resulted in unique
commitments to assist others with disabilities
achieve lives of dignity. Staff serve as role
models, demonstrating that it is both possible
and desirable for people with disabilities
to be productive and independent. The understanding,
guidance and support provided through ILCs
give others the confidence to take the first
steps toward their own independence.
ILCs
provide community advocacy as well as direct
services to individuals with disabilities.
ILCs advocate for the improvement of the quality
of life for all people with disabilities,
seeking to eliminate society's attitudinal,
environmental, social, psychological and economic
barriers to equal opportunities. Responsible,
self-reliant and productive people with disabilities
can provide the best public relations and
most effective advice for both individual
service and community change.
Unlike
many agencies, which only serve people with
a specific disability, ILCs offer a broad
range of community-based services for people
with a variety of disabilities in all age
groups. Whether one is very young or very
old, services are available throughout the
life of a person with a disability. ILCs are
also unique in that ILCs do not restrict or
limit services to vocational or job-related
goals.
The
language used with the Independent Living
Movement is also unique. It is a language
in which expressions like "crippled,"
"patient," "wheelchair-bound,"
and "confined to a wheelchair" are
actively discouraged. It is only from the
perspective of a person without a disability
that equipment such as a wheelchair is actually
a confinement or that a disability is seen
before the person is seen.
Why
Were ILCs Created?
Before ILCs, services for people with disabilities
were often non-existent or extremely fragmented.
Many individuals were denied opportunities
that would allow them to maximize their potential.
They were often forced into costly institutions.
People were literally being warehoused, wasting
enormous human resources at a huge expense
to the taxpayer.
The
development and growth of ILCs and the Independent
Living Movement has been significantly influenced
by a social and civil rights movement that
viewed the continuation of discriminatory,
patronizing and unjust treatment of people
with disabilities as intolerable. This movement
is not unlike the movement of other people
seeking independence. It is a struggle by
those of us with disabilities to control our
own lives, to have equal access to the decision-making
process in our communities, states and nation,
to be protected from discrimination under
the law and to be seen as equal and fully
human by society.
What
Services do ILCs Offer?
Assistance can range from a several minute
phone call to a one-time only visit to several
months and sometimes years of independent
living skills training and counseling. Services
typically offered by all ILCs include:
- Information
and Referral (I&R)
- Assistance
in Locating Accessible/Affordable Housing
- Personal
Care Attendant Recruitment and Placement
- Individual,
Systems and Civil Rights Advocacy
- Peer
Counseling
- Independent
Living Skills Training
Other
services provided by an ILC might include:
- Career
Development, Training and Placement
- Financial
Benefits Counseling
- Equipment
Loan
- Community
Education, Consultation and Training
How
are ILCs Funded?
Funding for ILCs comes from a variety of sources.
One major source is federal funding under
Title VII Part B of the Rehabilitation Act.
Additional funds come from all levels of government,
foundations, corporations, United Ways and
private contributions. Some ILCs offer services
at no cost while others collect fees, based
upon a sliding scale, from consumers or from
third party payers such as state agencies,
private insurance companies or Medicaid/Medicare.
People are not turned away because of an inability
to pay.
How
Can an ILC be Located?
There are now approximately 100 ILCs across
the country, most of which are controlled
by people with disabilities. The Independent
Living Movement is still relatively young
and thus ILCs are not listed under “Independent
Living Centers” in local phone books.
This sometimes makes locating one a real challenge
as every ILC has its own name. In your local
community, it may prove helpful to ask for
assistance in locating an ILC from an information
and referral service, a state agency, which
serves people with disabilities or a hospital
with a rehabilitation department. A current
computerized registry of all ILCs and similar
programs is available for $10 from: Independent
Living Research Utilization (ILRU) The Institute
for Rehabilitation and Research, P.O. Box
20095, Houston, Texas, 77225. Make checks
payable to ILRU.
What
Impact Have ILCs Had?
The efficacy of the Independent Living Movement
and its concepts are being proven daily by
more and more people with severe disabilities
as they choose to assume the responsibilities
of directing their own lives and as they become
active, contributing participants in the mainstream
of their communities. As the Movement has
gained momentum, the public is becoming more
aware of the abilities of people with disabilities
and more supportive of the services needed
to maximize those abilities.
ILCs
have kept thousands of people out of institutions
and have changed the status of many people
with disabilities from unemployed to employed.
As long as the ILCs exist, there will be a
centralized catalyst acting to facilitate
the movement of people with disabilities from
institutions to living and functioning independently
in the community.
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