A Center for Independent Living is a Consumer-Driven, Community-Based, Cross-Disability Private Non-Profit 501 (c)-3  organization in a non-residential facility whose primary purpose is to enable people with disabilities to access training, education and other resources so that they can live most independently.  Much of the work is done peer to peer, so that people with disabilities support each other in their life journeys.

Nationwide there are over 500 Centers.  In Virginia, there are 16:  Hampton, Norfolk, Charlottesville, Richmond, Arlington Virginia, Harrisonburg, Winchester, Pennington Gap, Norton, Danville, Onley (Eastern Shore), Manassas, Roanoke, Abingdon,  Fredericksburg, Lynchburg and Grundy.  The Centers' Boards of  Directors are made up of a majority of people with disabilities, and many who are on the Centers' staffs are people with disabilities.  Staff members act as role models for others in the community. 

Our Center serves the City of  Fredericksburg, and Stafford, Spotsylvania, King George and Caroline Counties, as well as the Colonial Beach/Oak Grove areas of Westmoreland County and the Germanna/ Lake of the Woods/ Locust Grove areas of Orange County.  We also respond as possible to requests for assistance from the Northern Neck area comprised of Lancaster, Richmond, Northumberland and Westmoreland Counties, and from the town of Culpeper.

All CIL's offer four Core Services:  Independent Living Skills Training, Advocacy, Information and Referral, and Peer Support.  In addition, CIL's respond to the needs of their communities in offering other services such as Personal Assistance Services, Housing Referrals, Case Management, social and recreational opportunities and others. 

Members, staff, and volunteers of the disAbility Resource Center work as a team dedicated to the premise that every individual should have the right, the opportunity and the choice to maximize their abilities, to live as independently as possible, and to participate in the community as fully as they choose.  Our mission is to assist people with disabilities, those who support them, and the community, through information, education and resources, to achieve the highest potential and benefit of independent living.

We welcome and provide assistance to people with all kinds of disabilities.  Assistance may be one-on-one, or in the form of support groups.  It may be long term, short-term or an answer to a single specific inquiry.  As a community-based organization, welcome the opportunity to assist in establishing new support groups or to support other long or short term projects.  We also welcome people with disabilities to join us as volunteers in supporting each other in our work and goal achievement.