MULTIPLE CHOICES CENTER FOR INDEPENDENT LIVING INC

Multiple Choices Center for Independent Living (CILs) Disabled Veteran’s Division (MCDVD) is a nonprofit division falling under Multiple Choices CILs. MCDVD is also a leader in connecting veterans with meaningful independent living advocacy. We empower our heroes and their families by helping to provide the resources they need and ensuring our nation keeps the promises made to them.

We are dedicated to a single purpose: to serve disabled individuals throughout a 10-county area of Northeastern Georgia. Our services include advocacy, peer support, information and referral, independent living skills training, assistive technology training and more. We assist veterans by empowering them to lead high-quality lives with respect and dignity. We accomplish this by ensuring that veterans and their families can access the full range of benefits available to them.

This mission is carried forward by:

• Providing free, professional assistance to veterans and their families in obtaining benefits and services earned through military service
• Providing outreach concerning its program services to our containment areas generally, and to disabled veterans and their families specifically
• Representing the interests of disabled veterans and their families
• Extending our mission into the communities where these veterans and their families live through Multiple Choices
• Providing a structure through which disabled veterans can express their compassion for their fellow veterans through a variety of volunteer programs

Centers for Independent Living (CILs) provide vital services that impact individuals with
disabilities, service providers, local communities, and overall systems. CILs make it
possible for individuals with disabilities of all ages to live more independently. They
strengthen support systems and increase the accessibility of communities. CILs also
shape and improve local, state, and national disability policies.

The CILs program purpose, according to Title VII, Chapter 1 of the Rehabilitation Act,
as amended (the Act) is to promote a philosophy of independent living, consumer
control, peer support, self-help, self-determination, equal access, and individual and system advocacy, in order to maximize the leadership, empowerment, independence, and productivity of
individuals with disabilities, and their integration and full inclusion into the mainstream of American society.

To accomplish the mission, we operate from a set of core values that emphasize individual choice and self-determination. To put these values into practice, there are key elements that characterize us. These elements include: • Consumer control over policy and management decisions • Consumer control over service objectives and methods • A cross-disability emphasis
• A community-based and community responsive approach • Peer role modeling in service delivery • A range of services • Systems advocacy and systems change efforts • Open and ongoing access to services by consumers.