Canadian Association for Community Living
As the national movement supporting the voice of people with an intellectual disability and their families for inclusion, Canadian Association for Community Living (CACL)[1] leads the way in helping Canadians build an inclusive Canada. CACL does this by strengthening families, defending rights, and transforming communities into places where everyone can belong.
| Abbreviation | CACL |
|---|---|
| Formation | 1958 |
| Merger of | L'institut National Canadien Francis (1972) |
| Type | Non-profit |
| Registration no. | 10684 2545 RR0001 |
| Legal status | Charity |
| Headquarters | Centre for Social Innovation |
| Location |
|
Region | Canada |
Membership | People with intellectual disabilities and their families |
Official languages | English / French |
President | Joy Bacon |
Vice-President | Robin Acton |
Treasurer | Raymond Castonguay |
| Subsidiaries | 400+ |
| Affiliations | People First of Canada |
| Website | www |
Formerly called | Canadian Association for Retarded Children, Canadian Association for the Mentally Retarded |
CACL is a family-based association assisting people with an intellectual disability and their families to lead the way in advancing inclusion in their own lives and in their communities. CACL is dedicated to attaining full participation in community life, ending exclusion and discrimination on the basis of intellectual disability, promoting respect for diversity and advancing human rights to ensure equality for all Canadians.
Founded in 1958, CACL is a national federation of over 40,000 individual members, 400 local associations, and 13 Provincial/Territorial Associations for Community Living.[2]
The CACL National organization is family-based, governed by a Board of Directors with representation from across Canada, activated through a national network of volunteers, and supported through a national staff team.
CACL's national organizations include the Canadian Association for Community Living (CACL), CACL Foundation, Institutes for Research and Development on Inclusion and Society (IRIS),[3] Inclusive Education Canada (IEC),[4] and Ready, Willing & Able (RWA).[5]
CACL works in collaboration and shared leadership with provincial-territorial associations for community living, and with other national partners and disability organizations to advance shared agendas for inclusion.
1930s – 1970s
The beginnings of our movement date back to the 1930s, when parent groups began to form to make their private struggles collective ones and to gain public attention for their cause. These grassroots networks of family organizations began in Montreal, and later in Saskatchewan and Ontario.
Access to education (as it was illegal for children with intellectual disabilities to attend school) and services were the mobilizing issues of the day. Parents formed local associations and then provincial associations to advocate with governments and coordinate efforts across communities. In 1958, provincial associations formed the Canadian Association for Retarded Children (CARC) to bring a national voice to their concerns.
Throughout the 1960s, local associations developed local services for people with an intellectual disability, and provincial governments began expanding facilities as well as a result of family and organizational advocacy. As early as 1963, discussions began about the need for a National Institute on Mental Retardation (NIMR). The Institute (now IRIS) was launched in 1968 "to help stimulate the process of translating theory into action, and conversely, to channel problems faced in the field to those able to conduct the necessary investigation and applied research."
As the decade of the 60s closed, the Association was witness to an impressive expansion of local services, research and demonstration initiatives, a growing number of 'Directors of Mental Retardation Services' in provincial governments, and the creation of research facilities. While these developments (including sheltered workshops, segregated schools, and group residences) demonstrated success by 1960s measures, they also gave the Association reason to pause and reflect on its future directions and purpose.
Members of the Association began to ask what kinds of services, what kinds of community, what kinds of society should we be building.
1980s – Present
The Association shifted its thinking about intellectual disability and began to see the core issues affecting people with an intellectual disability as basic equality, respect, dignity and human rights. When the Association changed its name to the Canadian Association for Community Living in 1985, the change reflected this shift in thinking and values. The issue was not to 'fix' people with an intellectual disability, but to create communities of equality and diversity where all people are welcomed and belong.
In 1987 the Association drafted a statement of the core values and principles of the association membership, citizenship and self-determination. The Association laid out objectives for itself – from closing institutions and sheltered workshops, to making funding for services more empowering of individuals' choices, to creating communities where children and families were supported – and laid out a profound redirection for the Association at all levels, stating clearly that it was time to shift from the segregating services that our movement had built when nothing else existed.
CACL entered the 90s firmly rooted in its commitment to change communities, systems, and laws that kept people confined to institutions and excluded from community, and has been working in this area since.
CACL has been a leader in advancing inclusion and human rights for people with an intellectual disability and their families – through deinstitutionalisation, inclusive education, building inclusive communities, family support initiatives, access to employment, many legal cases to advance our cause, and leadership development.
References
- http://cacl.ca
- "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2018-06-15. Retrieved 2018-06-15.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
- http://irisinstitute.ca
- http://inclusiveeducation.ca
- http://readywillingable.ca