CIL Cares history

Centers for Independent Living (CIL) emerged from the independent living movement of the 1960’s as a powerful social catalyst on the University of California at Berkeley campus.

Ed was accustomed to rejection; a year earlier in 1961 the state vocational rehabilitation agency refused to serve him, as he was considered too severely disabled and labeled unemployable.

They reluctantly admitted Ed in 1962 and arranged for him to live in the campus medical facility, Cowell Hall.

By 1966, two traumatic quadriplegics had also moved into Cowell, three years later there were 12 severely disabled students in the Cowell Residence Program, which had by then been formally established and was being supported by the California Department of Rehabilitation.

Additionally, by 1969, some residents were nearing the end of their academic careers and consequently would have to leave Cowell.

Funded in July 1970, the PDSP began full operation two months later with a full- and part-time staff of nine, of whom five, including the director, had extensive disabilities or was blind.

By the Spring of 1971, the time devoted to community people had begun to seriously affect the PDSP's ability to meet the needs of the students whom it was established to serve.

Additional changes happened inside nursing homes that warehoused young people with many types of disabilities due to the lack of better alternatives. (Wolfensberger, 1972).

In the last week of June 1973, the CIL was informed that a renewal of the planning grant, its last hope, would not be forthcoming.

In 1974, Wade founded the Atlantis Community, a model for community-based, consumer-controlled, independent living.

One of the many ironies of Ed’s life was that fourteen years later in 1975, Governor Jerry Brown appointed Ed as state Director of California’s rehabilitation agency, the same institution that once deemed him too severely disabled to ever work.

On February 19th the Center for Independent Living of Central Pennsylvania moved to its fourth and current location since opening its doors in 1989.