The first Centre for Integrated Living (CIL) was started in Berkeley, California in 1973, when three students who had been provided with personal assistance when they were at university, decided that a Personal Assistance Service was needed in the community. This developed into the first CIL, and was based around five core services: housing; personal assistance; accessible transport; access; and peer support.
The CIL in Berkeley was so successful that, within ten years, over 200 CILs were set up in the United States. In Britain, CILs were developed in Hampshire and Derbyshire in the early 1980's and, since then, have spread throughout the UK from Southampton to Glasgow.
A Centre for Integrated/Independent Living (CIL) is an organisation which provides innovative services which allow Disabled people to gain choice and control over every aspect of their lives. The key feature of a CIL is that it is run and controlled by Disabled people.
During the 1980's, a group of Disabled people began to meet in the room next to the CSV Café, with an idea of setting up a Centre for Integrated Living (CIL) in Bristol. Although this dream seemed unlikely to become a reality, the group formed the Avon Coalition Of Disabled People (ACODP) (this eventually became the West of England Coalition Of Disabled People (WECODP) in 1989, and the aim of setting up a CIL continued to be fundamental to the organisation.
The CIL first began to look as though it was a real possibility when ACODP received funding from Charity Projects in 1993 to appoint a CIL Project Worker. One of the key features of the following year was that of the Service Level Agreement with Avon County Council to operate ILSA (the Independent Living Scheme Avon), and the move of the Disability Arts Agency (DAA) to ACODP as an organisation of Disabled people. Following this, the Disability Advice Centre (DAC) approached the Coalition to begin negotiations about working together, as they wished to leave the management of SCOPE, which was an impairment specific organisation, to be run by an organisation of Disabled people.
During 1994, ACODP set up a CIL Working Group, and detailed discussions began about splitting the organisation into two parts, one which would remain as the Coalition and be a community development organisation focusing on campaigning and consultation, and the other which would be the Centre for Integrated Living, and would provide specific services to Disabled people. It was agreed that WECIL would be developed to provide quality services to Disabled people based on disability equality principles.
After long negotiations with Avon County Council, a building, which had previously been a residential hostel attached to Courtlands School, was secured. Funding was received through a Special Transitional Grant in 1994 to make it accessible to Disabled people, and the first workers moved in in December 1994.
WECIL became a legal entity in its own right as a limited company in April 1995 and, at this time, the core staff including the Finance and Buildings Manager and Director were appointed. It was officially launched by Jane Campbell, the Chair of the British Council Of Disabled People, and other local and national figures, in September 1995, and became a registered charity in March 1996. A number of new developments were identified during 1994 and 1995 and funding was secured for an Employment Project, Care Management Advocacy Project, South Gloucestershire Centre for Integrated Living Project and Housing and Relocation Projects.
WECIL continued to expand its existing services and were successful in gaining funding from "New Deal for Disabled People" in 1998 to run the Positive Action Partnership Scheme. WECIL had worked on the funding bid supported by partner organizations who agreed to support WECIL in offering placements and employment opportunities to Disabled people within their organizations. This project closed in September 2001 but employment courses in the form of "New Directions" and "Foundations" course continued to be carried out under the auspices of DIAS. In 1999 the Disability Advice Centre (DAC) was renamed the Disability Information and Advice Service (DIAS). The "New Directions" project closed in March 2003 when its funding from the Learning and Skills Council ceased.
In 1999 the Disability Arts Agency closed due to lack of funding. However, WECIL received three-year funding from the Department of Health to run a project providing advocacy to Disabled mothers in Bristol and also for the facilitation of a Disabled Mothers' Support Group. This funding arose out of a report written by WECIL's first Care Management Advocate entitled "Peer Advocacy in Practice". This project was launched in 1999 and later on, due to some funding from South Gloucestershire Social Services, was also able to provide advocacy to Disabled mothers in South Gloucestershire.
Also in 1999, funding was received for the Personal Assistance Support Scheme (PASS) in Bristol and, later on, South Gloucestershire Social Services also funded the project in order to undertake a pilot.
In 2000, discussions took place regarding a scheme for Disabled Young people to be able to access mainstream activities through the use of personal assistants (YouthPASS). This arose from the Youth Start Project which was being run at Florence Brown School.
WECIL is managed by a Board of Trustees who are all Disabled people. WECIL aims to respond to the views of it's service users and encourages them to join it's advisory sub-committees which steer each project. Each Advisory Sub-Committee elects a representative to sit on the Board of Trustees thus ensuring that information about all projects is fed to Trustees.
WECIL is based in Fishponds, Bristol, but it provides services to people in Bristol, South Gloucestershire, Bath and North East Somerset and North Somerset.
In 2002 WECIL employed an external consultant from the National Centre for Independent Living to undertake a full review of its projects and particularly its infrastructure. As a result, and due to substantial funding cuts, several projects had to close in March 2003. These projects were: "New Directions", the Disabled Mothers' Advocacy Project, Personal Assistance Support Scheme (PASS) and the North Somerset Disability Information Service.
WECIL now has a number of projects providing services (listed below) with a Core team providing financial,personnel and administrative support to all of them. From April 2003 ILSA has become the Direct Payments Service (DPS) and the old PASS has been merged into it. With no Director currently, we see it as vital to undertake fund-raising with the assistance of our Trustees, not only to sustain existing projects but to look at new opportunities.
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Registered Charity number 1053515. Registered Company number 3030167 (registered in Cardiff).