Association for Community Living

The powerful idea “nothing about us without us” drives a self-advocate movement of people with IDD who know who they are, what they want their lives and their communities to look like, what they have to contribute to the world, and what support they need in order to fully participate. People are often excluded from decisions about their own lives, decisions about building support systems that will create a healthy, fulfilling life and decisions about their own futures. Their lives are limited by system design flaws that perpetuate a lack of access to health care, long-term care, higher incidence of chronic health problems, poor educational outcomes, lack of technology access, low employment rates, high poverty, homelessness, and high incarceration rates. Many need support with communication, learning, staying healthy, and living independently. However, the systems providing support have many barriers to access, rarely accommodating a person’s disability. This creates inequity. ACL's Advocacy Program brings the voice of the person being served to the conversation.

The ACL strives to:

• Advocate for and protect the human rights of people with IDD
• Amplify the voices of people with IDD
• Actively Engage families and allies in the lives of people with IDD
• Support people with IDD to create fulfilled lives
• Change cultures, attitudes and systems through partnership
• Share expertise and advocate in the community
• Model professionalism, adaptability and responsiveness to the needs of people with IDD

Testimonials

I am a mother of an adult son with an intellectual developmental disability. I serve on the ACL board of directors because the board plays a very important role in an organization that has a mission statement that promotes attitudes, practices, programs, and policies which enable all people with intellectual and developmental disabilities along with their families/guardians to be included and become an integral part of community life. This is even more important to me because as a Latina woman, I am very proud of ACL's Caminando Juntos and the outreach that has been accomplished to Latino families by having a strong understanding of cultural values. Caminando Juntos has taught Latino families leadership, community involvement, and helped them create a very strong network. I am proud of all the individuals and families who have found their voices."