Disability Connection Midsouth (formerly named the Memphis Center for Independent Living) was organized by people with disabilities and is managed and directed by people with disabilities. Our mission is to facilitate the full integration of people with disabilities into all aspects of community life.Since 1985, we have been the center of a network of action, information, and resources to assist people with disabilities to conquer the barriers, overcome isolation and end dependency of people with disabilities. We encourage people with disabilities to work with us to build a new accessible welcoming community, learn from neighbors and teach fellow citizens that are struggling for their independence.Disability Connection Midsouth offers five core services to people with all types of disabilities: advocacy, independent living skills training, information and referral, peer support, and transition services.

WE ARE A CENTER FOR INDEPENDENT LIVING

Centers for independent living (CILs) are consumer-controlled, community-based, cross-disability, nonresidential, private nonprofit agencies that are designed and operated within a local community by individuals with disabilities and provide an array of independent living services. For more information, click one of the following links: CIL Info or Glossary and Definitions CILs are nonresidential organizations. Although accessible, affordable, integrated housing is a critical need, CILs do not provide housing. They are dedicated to assisting people to find their own housing. In other words, CILs empower people with disabilities to advocate for the services and supports they need to live in the community of their choice.Since 1985, Disability Connection Midsouth has been Memphis' Center for Independent Living. We are one of six CILs in Tennessee and one of hundreds in the country. For assistance locating other centers, click the following link: CIL Directory

INDEPENDENT LIVING PHILOSOPHY

The Independent Living philosophy postulates that people with disabilities are the best experts on our needs, and therefore we must take the initiative, individually and collectively. People with disabilities must design and promote solutions and must organize for political power. Besides de-professionalization and self-representation, the Independent Living ideology comprises de-medicalization of disability, de-institutionalization and cross-disability (i.e. inclusion in the IL Movement regardless of diagnoses). The Independent Living Movement grew out of the Disability Rights Movement, which began in the 1960s. The IL Movement works at replacing the special education and rehabilitation experts’ concepts of integration, normalization and rehabilitation with a new paradigm developed by people with disabilities themselves. The first Independent Living ideologists and organizers were people with extensive disabilities (e.g., Ed Roberts, Judith Heumann, Peg Nosek, Lex Frieden) and of course, early friends and collaborators in the 1970s (Julie Ann Racino) and university and government supporters throughout the 1980s and 1990s. For more info, click the following link: ACL Independent Living Overview