The Northeast Independant Living Program, INC. (NILP) is a nationally recognized leader in advocacy for change.  Change in the way others see people with disabilities.  And change in the way we, people with disabilities, feel about ourselves.

                 NILP's HISTORY...

1979: There were fewer than ten Independant Living Centers in the United States and most of them were on the east coast.
  Charlie Carr, now the Director of NILP, had the 'Independant Living bug.'  While he was working at an agency in Boston, he was interested in issues of consumer control and cross-disability and heard about a group in Lawrence (MA, USA) that was seeking funds to start an Independant Living Center.  Charlie Carr attended 'kitchen table meetings' in consumers' homes as far away as Gloucester, but mostly in Andover and Lawrence.  Charlie thought "this is great!", as more and more consumers and health care professionals came to find out about this new concept called 'Independant Living'.  It was exciting, to Charlie, to know first-hand that people with disabilities or who were Deaf could be part of mainstream America.  They were really doing something to take control of their lives.  Charlie Carr met Susan Halloran who was interested in many of the same areas.  She had worked for the National Spinal Cord Injury Foundation which was awarded a $39,000.00 innovation and expansion grant through the consumer-controlled Independant Living services in and around the Merrimack Valley.  Susan Halloran was instrumental in laying the groundwork for what would become the Northeast Independant Living Program, INC.

(NILP), originally a Lawrence based satellite of the NSCIF (National Spinal Cord Injury Foundation).
Susan Halloran and Charlie Carr became Resource Coordinators in a cubicle at the Lawrence MRC (Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission) office and worked side by side with nothing except the desire to make NILP a reality.  They mailed out a Needs Assessment which helped them to identify the consumers in the community and ask them what kind of services they wanted.  At the time, the only program was services to Adults with Physical Disabilities-because this was the area they knew best as they needed many of the same things themselves. LINK to the page about services to people with physical disabilities... After renting a small store-front office on Broadway in North Lawrence, they worked for months with their first two participants.  One was preparing to leave an institution and the other his parents' home.  They were receiving skills training which would prepare them to live on their own, and to employ Personal Care Attendants.

1980:  They took a giant step and "spun-off" from the National Spinal Cord Injury Foundation, and formally incorporated as the Northeast Independant Living Program, INC., forming a Board of Directors made up of at least fifty-one (51%) percent persons with disabilities.  Now they were truly consumer-controlled, providing Information and Referral, Peer Counseling, Advocacy, Skills Training, and Personal Care Attendant services.

1981:  Before they knew it, they had fifty (50) participants and needed more space.  They became better at raising funds, moved to the old Lawrence Public Library building and developed a program for youth with physical disabilities.  They knew it was difficult for kids to leave school and enter into the confusing world of adult services, systems, and agencies, so the NILP called this program "A smoother Transition". LINK to the page about sevices to youth with physical disabilities...

1985:  The NILP became a United Way agency and added Services for the Blind Community. LINK to the page about services to the blind/low vision... Their services included Information and Referral, Skills Training, Peer Counseling and Advocacy, and were tailored to the needs of persons who were blind or had low vision.  At the same time, North Essex Community College had a residential home where many of the school's Deaf students lived. When the home was sold, the State asked the NILP to find the students housing.  As a result, NILP developed what would become services to the Deaf Community. LINK to the page about services to the Deaf/Hard of Hearing... The NILP taught money management and housing rights and responsibilities.  When classes at the College resumed the following semester, every student had received training and had located housing.

1986:  The NILP brought on a Deaf Board member.  The Massachusetts Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing liked the NILP's approach.  NILP was a model because they were (and still are) controlled by people with disabilities or who were Deaf.  The Massachusetts Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing gave the NILP a small grant with which the NILP hired a Skills Specialist and an American Sign Language Interpreter.  These were exciting times, but as they started looking back they realized that each group needed a specialized approach.  That's "cross-disability".  If you're Deaf you work best with someone who's Deaf.  Each group knew what it's needs were.

1988:  The Department of Mental Health awarded the NILP a grant, (the only one given to an Independant Living Center) to start a program for people with psychiatric disabilities that eventually became Services to the Mental Health Community. They worked with a grassroots organizing group for ex-mental patients, then known as the Empowerment Sponsoring Committee, which evolved into M-Power (There are M-Power(M-Power is a separate (from the LOVE group) grassroots mental health organization-)offices all over the state of Massachusetts-Boston, Lowell, Worcester... M-Power is a BIG grassroots organization in the Baystate.)but is now the Lawrence Organizing Voices for Empowerment the LOVE group-see their website at...

CLICKING HERE...will LINK you to their website (created by me-J.T.)... (-the LOVE group is part of NILP's services to the Mental Health community.)view the page about services to the Mental Health community at... LINK to the page about services to the Mental Health community... .

1990:  The NILP's reputation began to attract better skilled staff and it was the beginning of our capital campaign to buy a building with a $50,000.00 (fifty thousand dollar) goal in three (3) years.  When the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was passed...
...that was a watershed.  Imagine...all the lobbying efforts against it's passage.
The ADA was an incredible victory for the disability community and the Deaf community.

Shortly before the passage of the ADA, a Harris Poll showed that people with disabilities or who are Deaf represented the largest minority group without civil rights... a sleeping giant, with jobs and money to spend.

1994:  After four long years and a successful capital campaign, NILP bought a building in South Lawrence (MA, USA) that is now home to NILP.  It was an affirmation to their commitment and their resolve to build upon their achievements.

Today:  There are 300-400 Independant Living Centers in the United States.  People with disabilities or who are Deaf appear on television shows, in the movies, in commercials.  Disabled individuals are coming into the mainstream of American life, viewed as consumers, as part of the whole.  We can look back and realize that not long ago, the only option for many people in the disability community was to live with their family or in an institution.  In 1980, you rarely saw anyone with a disability on the street or at the mall. We-meaning NILP staff were told that only people without disabilities could run the NILP programs.  It was a bit of a shock to the community when they saw that we could make it work.  And it has worked...

...worked very well to assist thousands in our community to gain control of their lives.  We have a legacy that people, with or without disabilities, need to learn.  It's a uniqueness of culture.