NWGA Center for Independent Living

 

disABILITY LINK NW separated from its parent organization in Atlanta this January, The center is now its own 501(c)3 non-profit organization: NWGA Center for Independent Living (NWGA CIL).

“Our staff and services are the same, but now we are able to be more flexible in serving others who have disabilities, and seeking partnerships and local support,” said Maia Santamaria, Executive Director.

The center also changed its name in the process.  Santamaria said: “No one wants to be known solely by one characteristic, especially when it can have a negative connotation. We wanted to shift the focus of our organization away from ‘disability’ to the empowerment of ‘independence.’”

NWGA CIL provides services and programs and works in partnership with each person with a disability to achieve their chosen goals. The center serves people of any age and with any disability. Santamaria said: “One person may want to access their garden and go to the store and church, another to get an education and a job, and another to take a shower by themselves. These are goals in life that we all should be able to take for granted, even though some of us accomplish them differently.”

A NOTE TO CONSUMERS

If you are a current consumer and wish to sign a new application agreement with NWGA CIL, please contact the center. If we don’t hear from you, we will not change anything. In either case, we will continue to serve you.

DEAR CIL DOG COLUMN

Hi! I represent the five service dogs that work here. We have learned a lot about all the ways and what people use to live real lives even with their disabilities.

The other service dogs have asked me to answer your questions about living more independently by sharing the secrets of how our people do it. So send me YOUR questions. Call, email, snail mail, post on our web site or Facebook, or Tweet us. We will select questions to feature here and reply. What, you thought dogs don’t do social media?  We run in packs!

Now I have some questions for you. What would you like our newsletter to be named? And can you guess my name? And what do I look like? Let me know.

 

Yours,

CIL Dog

P.S. Please let us know if you do not want to receive this newsletter, or if you would like it in a different format.

 

 

UPCOMING EVENTS

APRIL 18, 6:30 p.m.

TANDEM CYCLING THE SILVER COMET TRAIL

Presented by

Jose and Maia Santamaria

Cycle Therapy, 608 Broad Street

Rome, GA 30161,

APRIL 22, 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

SPRING INTO INDEPENDENT LIVING

OPEN HOUSE at our office

MAY 8, 10 a.m.to 11:30 a.m.

THE BASICS: ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE

presented by Rebekah Davis, Regional Program Director, Alzheimer’s Assoc.

Sara Hightower Library, Coosa Room

205 Riverside Pkwy. NE Rome 30161

JUNE 1

STREETS ALIVE

NWGA CIL will be participating in this downtown Rome event with activities

JUNE 19

Olmstead Celebration

Details TBA

JULY 10

American’s with Disabilities Act (ADA) Celebration

Details TBA

242 North 5^th Avenue , Rome, GA 30165

P: 706.314.0008 · TF: 866.888.7845  https://www.nwgacil.org https://www.facebook.com/NWGACIL Find us on Twitter @NWGACIL