Dear Advocates,

2015 has been an exciting year for NCIL and the IL Movement. We have accomplished so much together. Our collective action convinced the Administration for Community Living to revise their interpretation of the approval process for the State Plan for Independent Living. WIOA regulations are nearly final and it’s important that we keep the pressure on. Your donation to NCIL will ensure our staff can continue to work closely with ACL to make sure the final regulations support Independent Living and consumer control!

Our small, dedicated staff can do a lot with a little. We work tirelessly and efficiently to make sure our members’ dues and donations are spent smartly. But we’re still $10,000 short of our fundraising goals for 2015. If each of our members gives just $10 before December 31st, we’ll meet our goal! Of course, if you can afford to give more, we encourage you to do so. NCIL is still understaffed and additional funds will enable us to hire policy staff to work on your policy priorities! After all, NCIL is your disability rights organization.

• Make a donation

Please make a donation to NCIL today. If you are not able to make a donation, I hope you will join or renew your membership for 2016 if you have not already. Your support and participation keeps us going. Thank you!

• Renew your membership

Sincerely,

Kelly Buckland

Executive Director

Annual Conference on Independent Living 2016

July 25-28, 2016; Grand Hyatt, Washington, DC

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NCIL’s Annual Conference on Independent Living draws individuals of all ages and disabilities from all 50 states. Last year’s Conference was our biggest ever, with over 1,500 people coming together in Washington, DC to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the ADA, to hear from the leaders of Generation ADA, and to advance justice and equality for people with disabilities. NCIL also set a new membership record 2015, with over a thousand members joining NCIL from every corner of the nation. In 2016, we will focus this unprecedented momentum into action. This year’s theme represents a call for unity among people with disabilities and our true allies. It is with great pride and certainty in the power of the Independent Living community that we present the 2016 Annual Conference on Independent Living: Solidarity – Everybody In.

We echo the words of Justin Dart:

“I call for solidarity among all who love justice, all who love life, to create a revolution that will empower every single human being to govern his or her life, to govern the society and to be fully productive of life quality for self and for all.”

Solidarity is essential to building and advancing the Independent Living Movement, and necessary for overcoming the challenges our community faces today.

We must unite to defeat the discrimination in policies and attitudes that led to the institutional bias, employment discrimination, and a lack of accessible housing and transportation – just to name a few of the barriers facing our community today.

We must embrace solidarity with all of our brothers and sisters with disabilities and prioritize the participation of people of color, youth, and other multiply-marginalized people with disabilities who remain severely under-represented in our Movement.

We must also continue our commitment to consumer control as we monitor and advocate for the successful implementation of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act in the spirit of the law as crafted by our advocates and allies.

We must support people with disabilities organizing for Independent Living around the world. We have a lot to share with and to learn from this global network of advocates.  [Read more…]

In recent months, several areas of our country have been hard hit with disaster. California has experienced wild fires and Texas and South Carolina have experienced torrential rains and flooding. NCIL, Portlight Strategies, FEMA, Red Cross and various other non-governmental organizations have worked together to provide disaster response and recovery in the hardest hit areas.

NCIL, through their partnership with Portlight Strategies and local CILs and SILCs, has had a presence in California, Texas, and South Carolina during disaster response and recovery. As agreed in the Memorandum of Understanding between NCIL and Portlight, the two entities will work together to ensure that the needs of the disability community are being met before, during, and after a disaster. Portlight, through their partnership with American Red Cross, deployed staff to these areas to ensure: shelter accessibility, accessible response and recovery services, and to provide Just In Time training to Red Cross volunteers working the disaster.

These partnerships allowed both NCIL and Portlight to get involved in a meaningful way. For example: Portlight coordinated and funded daily disability stakeholder calls in all three areas. As NCIL was already aware, some CILs will have the capacity to provide disaster recovery services and other CILs may not. By establishing the disability stakeholder calls, we were quickly able to determine which CILs, SILCs, or IL Associations could and would be involved in disaster recovery, which ones could provide minimal information and referral and which ones might need some assistance themselves. In addition, the calls encouraged networking among all of the local and national disaster response entities to ensure that the needs of the disability community were met. Through these calls, NCIL and Portlight learned what was working well and what areas of service may need immediate attention.

In addition to the disability stakeholder calls, Portlight’s deployment into the disaster areas allowed for immediate access to individuals with disabilities needing assistance. Working with local Centers for Independent Living allowed Portlight to replace lost durable medical equipment and supplies as soon as possible and to establish valuable relationships with local businesses and organizations that could continue to provide long term relief in the areas.

Finally, deployment to disaster areas allowed Portlight to determine the accessibility of the Red Cross services being provided to disaster survivors. Portlight shared that information with NCIL and local CILs and SILC representatives who were able to advocate for immediate improvements at shelters, disaster recovery centers and within program services, thus ensuring that individuals with disabilities are not discriminated against and receive the most accessible and appropriate services after a disaster.

These relationships in emergency management continue to evolve daily as we learn more and more about the needs after each disaster. Our primary goal has been and remains: to help save the lives of individuals with disabilities affected by disaster.

When you shop at AmazonSmile, Amazon donates 0.5% of the purchase price to the National Council on Independent Living. Bookmark the link http://smile.amazon.com/ch/74-2291620 and support us every time you shop.

#GivingTuesday is a national movement to celebrate and provide incentives to give. The #GivingTuesday effort harnesses the collective power of a unique blend of partners – non-profits, families, businesses and individuals – to transform how people think about, talk about and participate in the giving season. This year’s #GivingTuesday falls on December 1st, 2015, and NCIL has partnered with #GivingTuesday in order to draw attention to and raise funds for the important work of making independent living a reality in our communities.

Your donation to NCIL in honor of #GivingTuesday will help us to protect our reputation as the strongest grassroots cross-disability organization in the nation’s capital. Our small staff works diligently to represent CILs, SILCs, and people with disabilities on a shoestring budget, and we are still operating with advocacy positions unfilled due to budget constraints. In order to ensure that our policy staff can be on the forefront of our community’s input is heard, we need your help!

• Make a donation to NCIL

“#GivingTuesday is a counter narrative to Black Friday and Cyber Monday because it reminds us that the spirit of the holiday giving season should be about community and not just consumerism,” said Kathy Calvin, CEO of the UN Foundation. “The most meaningful gift we can give our children, loved ones, friends and neighbors is the commitment to work together to help build a better world.”

About NCIL

The National Council on Independent Living is the longest-running national cross-disability, grassroots organization run by and for people with disabilities. Founded in 1982, NCIL represents thousands of organizations and individuals including: individuals with disabilities, Centers for Independent Living (CILs), Statewide Independent Living Councils (SILCs), and other organizations that advocate for the human and civil rights of people with disabilities throughout the United States.

An outcome of the national Disability Rights and Independent Living Movements, NCIL was founded to embody the values of disability culture and Independent Living philosophy, which creates a new social paradigm and emphasizes that people with disabilities are the best experts on their own needs, that they have crucial and valuable perspective to contribute to society, and are deserving of equal opportunity to decide how to live, work, and take part in their communities.

Since its inception, NCIL has carried out its mission by assisting member CILs and SILCs in building their capacity to promote social change, eliminate disability-based discrimination, and create opportunities for people with disabilities to participate in the legislative process to affect change. NCIL promotes a national advocacy agenda set by its membership and provides input and testimony on national disability policy.

About #GivingTuesday

To learn more about #GivingTuesday participants and activities or to join the celebration of giving, please visit:

• Website: www.givingtuesday.org
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/GivingTuesday
• Twitter: twitter.com/GivingTues

Amazon Smile

When you’re shopping this holiday season, please remember that NCIL has partnered with Amazing through the Amazon Smile program. If you use Amazon to do any online shopping, please use this link and Amazon will donate .5% of your purchase amount to NCIL!