Executive Summary

The National Council on Independent Living (NCIL) will provide testimony regarding Independent Living and the current services within the Veterans’ Administration Vocational Rehabilitation and Education’s Independent Living Program (ILP).

The National Council on Independent Living is the oldest national cross-disability, grassroots organization run by and for people with disabilities.

Centers for Independent Living across the country are assisting veterans in navigating the VA system, obtaining housing, and personal assistance services, and are providing information and referral. 

Centers for Independent Living want to collaborate actively with the VA. Centers have asked for more funding to be allocated to help assist the VA in providing essential and timely services to veterans and their families.

Centers in Alaska, Minnesota and Michigan are working with their communities to make sure our veterans are receiving the proper supports to reintegrate into their communities.

Centers for Independent Living have been focusing on one-on-one support to assist people with disabilities in outlining their future goals, learning that there is a way to have a high quality of life with a disability, and creating a support network within the community to ensure continued independence.

Centers for Independent Living and NCIL are on record requesting additional funding to be allocated to help assist the VA in providing essential and timely services to veterans and their families.

NCIL and our Veterans Taskforce welcome the opportunity to discuss how Centers for Independent Living can help the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Vocational Rehabilitation Employment program enhance services for our Nation’s returning and aging veterans.

Chairman Filner, Ranking Member Buyer, and distinguished colleagues of the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, thank you for this opportunity to comment on VA’s Independent Living program.  My name is John Lancaster and I am the Executive Director of the National Council on Independent Living.

The National Council on Independent Living is the oldest national cross-disability, grassroots organization run by and for people with disabilities. Founded in 1982, NCIL is the association representing Centers for Independent Living (CILs) and Statewide Independent Living Councils (SILCs), which provide independent living services and advocate civil rights of people with disabilities throughout the United States.

A majority of our Centers for Independent Living and Statewide Independent Living Councils receive federal funding under Title VII of the Rehabilitation Act, administered by the Rehabilitation Services Administration of the Department of Education.

Centers for Independent Living serve our nation in all but five Congressional Districts.  These Centers are non-residential, cross-disability advocacy organizations. CILs serve people with disabilities of all ages and income; including people with physical, cognitive and sensory disabilities, as well as the growing population of people with mental illnesses and PTSD. All Centers for Independent Living offer four core services of independent living skills training, peer support, individual and systems advocacy, and information and referral. Many Centers offer additional services such as support groups, community advocacy projects, home modification programs, assistive technology loan banks, attendant care services, deaf interpreters services, Braille services, recreation, and other community collaboration efforts.

According to data collected by the Rehabilitation Services Administration, during Fiscal Years 2004 – 2006, Centers for Independent Living:

Attracted over $520 million through private, state, local, and other sources annually;

Moved 8,381 people out of nursing homes and institutions, saving states and the Federal government well over $160 million, not to mention improving people’s quality of life, and;

Provided the core services of advocacy, information and referral, peer support, and independent living skills training to over 3 million individuals with disabilities[1]

In that same period, Centers provided other services to over 659,000 individuals with disabilities in their respective communities that included:

Services to over 56,000 youth with disabilities;

Assistance to over 169,000 people in securing accessible, affordable, and integrated housing;

Transportation services to over 106,000 people with disabilities;

Personal assistance services to over 163,000 people with disabilities;

Vocational and employment services to 105,000 people with disabilities, and;

Assistance with Assistive Technology for 114,000 people with disabilities.

NCIL and all Centers for Independent Living believe in the principle of consumer-control and that community-based services are an essential element of integration, which will ensure the full participation of people with disabilities in all aspects of society. NCIL has long worked to garner the support and services that people with disabilities need to achieve community integration and economic self-sufficiency. We believe people with the most significant disabilities can be contributing members of society given the proper supports. Our philosophy demands all individuals be given every opportunity to succeed when other agencies are content with labeling them unemployable.

NCIL recently developed a Veteran’s taskforce, which conducted a survey of our Centers for Independent Living. Results showed Centers for Independent Living are indeed working with veterans to obtain housing, assist them in navigating the VA system, acquiring personal attendant care, and providing information and referral.  One common theme that came out of the survey loud and clear is that there must to be a formal connection between Centers for Independent Living and the VA. When Centers for Independent Living get a referral from the VA it is usually at a time of crisis.  We would welcome a formal relationship with the VA and Veteran’s Service Organizations to better assist veterans with disabilities and their families.

The core belief of Independent Living, which NCIL and all Centers for Independent Living subscribe to, is that all people have the right to decide how to live, work, and participate in their communities, and that consumer-directed and community-based services are the most effective and cost efficient method for the full integration of the wounded warriors back to civilian life.

The reports of the President’s Commission on Care for America’s Returning Wounded Warriors, as well as the VA’s Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment Taskforce, support these fundamental Independent Living core beliefs and agree on the need to create more IL programs, which increase access to community-based services.

While the VA’s long history of assistance to returning warriors has focused primarily on clinical treatment and compensation, Centers for Independent living have been focusing on one-on-one support to assist people with disabilities in outlining their future goals, learning that there is a way to have a high quality of life with a disability, and creating a support network within the community to enhance the lives of all.

Fortunately, Centers for Independent Living want to collaborate actively with the VA. Centers for Independent Living and NCIL is on record requesting  additional funding to be allocated to help assist the VA in providing essential and timely services to veterans and their families. Many Centers for Independent Living employ veterans and have reached out to include veterans with disabilities on their staff and boards of directors so that they may use their real life experience to improving VA programs in their local community, and use existing programs to help expand capacity to serve newly injured and aging veterans who proudly served our country to live independently within their own local communities. 

Centers in Alaska, Minnesota and Michigan are working with their communities to make sure our veterans are receiving the proper supports to reintegrate into their communities. In Alaska, the CIL works with the VA, offering veterans access to their mobility loan closet or their TBI support groups. In Minnesota CILs are important and valuable community resources for the VA providing peer-to-peer supports and accessing community supports at a faster pace. Our independent living specialists in Michigan are now doing some work with the VA, including Pre-IL assessments, comprehensive assessments, case management and other IL supports as needed. 

NCIL encourages all Veteran Affairs programs to connect with local Center for Independent Living through out the country. NCIL and our Veterans' Task would welcome the opportunity to discuss how Centers for Independent Living can help the VA enhance services for our Nation’s returning veterans. To this end, NCIL looks forward to working with you and your staff to address these policy issues.

Thank you for your time and attention to this critical issue.

[1] Rehabilitation Services Administration response to NCIL  Freedom of Information Act request 08-00115-F. November 19, 2007