Canadian Association of Independent Living Centres Nurturing Belonging Across Canada

By Brian Smith

CAILC is doing a great job of ensuring a sense of belonging in the lives of people with disabilities by facilitating the excercise of their citizenship. Here are the four processes by which they do that:

1. Making citizenship rights real: ILRCs value people with disabilities as citizens, not as clients or disabled persons. This means that ILRCs understand and respect the diversity and uniqueness of people with disabilities.

2. Allowing people to exercise their responsibilities: A central component of citizenship is having the ability to exercise the responsibilities flowing from citizenship rights. ILRCs offer a variety of programs aimed at pan-Canadian citizenship development, such as employment programs, skills & learning programs, peer support, and networking.

3. Ensuring access: Full citizenship must involve making rights and responsibilities both real and realizable to individuals by ensuring access to work, education, technology and social protection.

4. Fostering a sense of belonging: Full citizenship exists when individuals feel a meaningful sense of belonging: to community and country. ILRCs strive to foster a sense of belonging—a common sense of destiny--by working towards the reality of respect for individuals through ensuring access, making citizenship rights real, and allowing people to exercise their responsibilities.
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Here's a full profile of CAILC...

The Canadian Association of Independent Living Centres (CAILC) is a national, bilingual, cross-disability, disability-led umbrella organization that advances the principles of Independent Living (IL) by providing leadership and resources to people with disabilities through a national network of Independent Living Resource Centres (ILRC). CAILC’s goals are as follows:

• Promote the further development of ILRCs in Canadian communities;
• Advance the IL philosophy nationally as well as the role of ILRCs in their communities;
• Provide ILRCs with organizational support, training, and leadership to help facilitate the implementation of innovative program delivery;
• Act as a liaison between ILRCs, the disability community, the federal government, Members of Parliament, and policy makers.

CAILC serves all persons with disabilities and represents the needs of the national disability community regardless of age, race, gender, location (urban or rural), linguistic profile (English, French, & ASL) etc.

Independent Living (IL) is a social movement of, for and by people with disabilities. It is guided by the principle that in our society all citizens have the right and duty to take responsibility for their own life. This sense of self-direction and self-actualization is embodied in all aspects of the IL movement in the belief that developing independence means overcoming dependency. The movement promotes human rights, de-institutionalization and full and equal participation for all in the community and in society.

A central goal of the IL movement is the removal of social and environmental barriers that prevent persons with disabilities from controlling their own lives. In part, the Independent Living model is an alternative social model to the medical service delivery approach. Rather than searching for a cure to a particular condition, people with disabilities are provided with the knowledge and skills to explore options, make choices, take risks, and make their own mistakes as they themselves decide on a course of action for their daily lives. People with disabilities must be empowered to fully participate in their society and the communities in which they live.
ILRCs support individuals to put the idea and philosophy of Independent Living into action. Every Canadian ILRC is governed and staffed by a majority of people who themselves have disabilities. In this way, they can truly understand and respond to the needs of their members and the community. Exercising full citizenship is at the core of the Independent Living philosophy and the work of the ILRCs. In practical terms, this happens through four interdependent processes:

1. Making citizenship rights real: ILRCs value people with disabilities as citizens, not as clients or disabled persons. This means that ILRCs understand and respect the diversity and uniqueness of people with disabilities.

2. Allowing people to exercise their responsibilities: A central component of citizenship is having the ability to exercise the responsibilities flowing from citizenship rights. ILRCs offer a variety of programs aimed at pan-Canadian citizenship development, such as employment programs, skills & learning programs, peer support, and networking.

3. Ensuring access: Full citizenship must involve making rights and responsibilities both real and realizable to individuals by ensuring access to work, education, technology and social protection.

4. Fostering a sense of belonging: Full citizenship exists when individuals feel a meaningful sense of belonging: to community and country. ILRCs strive to foster a sense of belonging—a common sense of destiny--by working towards the reality of respect for individuals through ensuring access, making citizenship rights real, and allowing people to exercise their responsibilities.