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A guide for people with disabilities interested in visiting sites in Kingston.


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Mission Statement

Independent Living Centre Kingston facilitates and promotes individual and community-based change, which promotes self-determination and full participation in all aspects of community life for persons with disabilities.

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Board Of Directors: 2007-2008

Executive Committee:
  • President: Evelyn Maizen
  • Vice-President: David Grightmire
  • Secretary: Vacant
  • Treasurer: Vincent Durant
  • Past President: Steve Mitchell
Directors:
  • Maria Helena Delgado
  • Dinah Cotter
  • Susan Charlesworth
  • Judy Groulx
  • Audrey Kobayashi
  • Andrew Ashby
  • John Fotheringham

Independent Living Centre Kingston History

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, a group of individuals with disabilities brought the concept of Independent Living (IL) to Kingston. After conducting a research study, they confirmed Kingston's need for an Independent Living Centre.

Planning and development resulted in funding for one full-time employee when Independent Living Centre Kingston (ILCK) opened its doors in 1988.

The early 1990s ILCK was defining what we were about, understanding the philosophy of IL, and internalizing it into our mission and mandate. Time was spent promoting the IL movement in Kingston because there was no awareness building before that.

Along with promoting the centre, ILCK secured funding to deliver information services, and support and skills building to people with disabilities for greater community participation. ILCK started to respond to the need for housing, and employment resources and services to people with disabilities - unmet needs in the community until that point. As we provided services and promoted ILCK, our membership and user-base continued to grow.

By the mid-1990s, we became more involved with disability organizations. ILCK brought more than 16 organizations from the Eastern Ontario together for the Voices in Partnership conference to assess priorities in the disability community. ILCK raised the issues of violence against women with disabilities, and developed educational material and training programs.

ILCK began to focus on educating the community about accessibility, and created an Access Guide to Kingston. Employment services went from on-site training programs to programs that helped people find employment and improve their quality of life, through concurrent IL skills building. In the late 1990s, the centre took a leadership role on the provincial and national levels. We became partners in the Direct Funding pilot project.

ILCK continues to provide its services and expanded them to include disability awareness training. We streamlined our operations programming procedures and today operate with greater efficiency than ever before.We continue to promote the centre within the community and have substantially increased our community involvement and outreach efforts.

Would you like to learn more about Independent Living? IL Resources.
Interested in becoming a Member of ILCK? Join or donate.
Do you want to find out more about partnership opportunities? Valued supporters
Would you like know more about volunteering? Volunteer at ILCK.

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