Office Hours: Mon- Fri 10:00am - 3:30pm

About

Cowichan Valley
Independent Living
Resource Center

More than 35 years of promoting independence, choice,
and inclusion in the Cowichan Valley.

OUR STORY

The story of Cowichan Independent Living begins with a larger change taking place across Canada. People with disabilities were challenging systems that often made decisions for them, spoke on their behalf, or focused only on what they were unable to do. The Independent Living movement offered a different direction. It recognized people with disabilities as leaders, decision-makers, and experts in their own lives. Independence was no longer defined by completing every task alone. It was defined by having choice, control, dignity, and an equal opportunity to participate in community life.

Independent Living Canada was founded in 1986 to advance these principles nationally. Its purpose was to connect and strengthen community-based Independent Living Centres run by and for people with disabilities. These centres would respond to the needs of their own communities while contributing to a shared national vision: an accessible and inclusive Canada where people with disabilities are valued equally and participate fully.

In 1990, Cowichan Valley Independent Living Resource Centre was established in Duncan. The Centre gave the Independent Living movement a lasting home in the Cowichan Valley. It created a local place where people with disabilities could find understanding, information, community connection, and support grounded in respect for their personal choices.

CVILRC’s history was not built around one program or one type of disability. It was built around people. As the community changed, the Centre listened and responded. Staff members, volunteers, board members, supporters, and community partners each helped shape the organization. Most importantly, people with disabilities brought the knowledge and lived experience needed to keep the Centre focused on real barriers and practical change.

More than 35 years later, this purpose continues to guide Cowichan Independent Living. The organization has grown and adapted, but the principle at the centre of its work has stayed the same: people should have a meaningful voice in every decision affecting their lives.

WHAT INDEPENDENT LIVING MEANS

Independent Living does not mean living alone. It does not mean refusing assistance or completing every part of daily life without support. It means having the right to decide what support looks like, where it comes from, and how it fits into your life.

Every person understands independence differently. For one person, it means finding clear information before making an important decision. For someone else, it means receiving assistance with a difficult form, connecting with a trusted organization, gaining access to the community, or finding the confidence to speak for themselves. The goal is not to decide what independence should look like for another person. The goal is to respect their direction and help remove the barriers standing in their way.

This meaning is important because Cowichan Independent Living is a disability resource centre, not a housing centre. The words “Independent Living” describe our philosophy. They represent personal choice, self-determination, accessibility, inclusion, and full community participation. They also recognize that needing assistance does not make someone less independent. A person remains independent when they retain control over their decisions and the direction of their life.

This philosophy changes the relationship between an organization and the people who come through its doors. The person is not treated as a problem to solve or a passive recipient of care. They are treated as a complete individual with knowledge, abilities, goals, responsibilities, and the right to make informed choices. Staff and community partners offer information and support, but the individual stays at the centre.

This is the perspective Cowichan Independent Living has carried forward since 1990. It influences how we listen, how we communicate, how we understand barriers, and how we work with people throughout the Cowichan Valley.

GROWING WITH THE COWICHAN VALLEY

Cowichan Independent Living did not grow separately from the Cowichan Valley. The organization grew with the people, communities, and relationships surrounding it.

During more than three decades of local work, the region has experienced major social, economic, and technological changes. Information and government processes have increasingly moved online. Applications have become more complicated. Many community members face limited access to medical professionals, transportation, affordable housing, accessible spaces, and dependable support. Seniors and people with disabilities often find themselves trying to understand several disconnected systems at the same time.

Cowichan Independent Living has stayed close to those realities because we hear about them directly from the people experiencing them. A person might arrive at the Centre with one question, but the conversation often reveals several connected barriers. Our role begins with listening. From there, we help the person understand their options, identify useful information, and find a clearer direction.

Independent Living Canada’s current member-centre profile identifies community relationships as one of CVILRC’s greatest strengths. This reflects how the Centre has grown. People learn about Cowichan Independent Living through family members, neighbours, medical professionals, local organizations, community partners, and others who have received support. Trust has developed through personal conversations, practical assistance, and a willingness to help people determine what comes next.

Our work in the Valley also depends on strong partnerships. CVILRC builds relationships with community organizations, government agencies, Indigenous communities, service providers, educational institutions, funders, and local businesses. These connections help reduce the distance between people and the information or support they are trying to reach. They also help the Centre identify service gaps and bring accessibility into wider community discussions.

This local knowledge matters. The challenges facing a person in Duncan, North Cowichan, Lake Cowichan, or another part of the region are influenced by where they live, what transportation is available, which services are nearby, and whether those services are accessible. Understanding the Cowichan Valley allows the Centre to respond as a local organization rather than applying one answer to every situation.

Each conversation also teaches us something. When the same barrier appears repeatedly, it becomes evidence of a wider community need. Local experiences help guide program planning, partnerships, advocacy, and future priorities. In this way, individual support and community development remain closely connected.

MORE THAN 35 YEARS OF COMMUNITY CONNECTION

Since 1990, generations of staff members, volunteers, board members, donors, community partners, and local residents have contributed to Cowichan Independent Living. Some have shared professional knowledge. Others have brought lived experience, volunteered their time, provided financial support, formed partnerships, or helped another person learn where to turn. Each contribution has added to the Centre’s history.

This history has been built through thousands of individual moments. A person enters the Centre feeling uncertain and leaves with a clearer direction. A volunteer gives their time to help someone complete an important process. A community organization shares knowledge that helps close a service gap. A donor provides funding that allows the Centre to continue responding to people who need somewhere local to turn.

These moments explain why community connection matters. Cowichan Independent Living does more than work in the Valley. It belongs to the Valley. Its knowledge comes from daily contact with people who live here. Its partnerships come from years of working alongside local organizations. Its priorities develop from the barriers and opportunities the community brings forward.

At the same time, Cowichan Independent Living is part of something much larger. CVILRC is a member of Independent Living Canada, a national network of disability-led Independent Living Centres. Each centre responds to its own region, but all member centres share the same commitment to choice, dignity, self-determination, and full community participation.

Independent Living Canada strengthens this network through national leadership, public dialogue, partnerships, research, shared knowledge, and initiatives addressing issues affecting people with disabilities. Local centres bring forward the experiences of their communities. The national organization connects those experiences, identifies shared concerns, and helps strengthen the collective voice of people with disabilities across Canada.

The national network organizes its work around four core pillars: peer support, information and networking, Independent Living skills development, and research and community development. These pillars provide a common foundation while leaving each member centre free to respond to its community.

Information and networking have become particular strengths for Cowichan Independent Living. People often come to the Centre when they do not know where to begin, which organization to contact, or how to work through a complicated system. CVILRC helps bring separate pieces of information together so the person has a clearer path forward. This work reflects both a local need and one of the core pillars shared across the Canadian Independent Living movement.

The relationship works in both directions. Knowledge from the national network strengthens local work in the Cowichan Valley. Experiences from the Cowichan Valley contribute to wider discussions about accessibility, inclusion, and the barriers affecting people with disabilities across Canada. A conversation in Duncan therefore belongs to a much larger movement for change.

This is what makes support for Cowichan Independent Living so meaningful. Donors help sustain a trusted local organization with more than 35 years of community knowledge. At the same time, they support a disability-led philosophy connected to national work taking place across Canada. Local investment strengthens local capacity while helping the Independent Living movement continue from one generation to the next.

LOOKING FORWARD

The year 2026 brings an important opportunity to honour the past and consider what comes next.

Independent Living Canada is celebrating its 40th anniversary, marking four decades of national leadership in advancing disability rights, inclusion, choice, and self-determination. Founded in 1986, the national organization has worked alongside its member centres, partners, and communities to strengthen community-based leadership and increase the influence of people with disabilities in decisions affecting them.

The anniversary theme, “40 Years and Onward – Shaping the Future of Independent Living,” reflects both pride in the progress already made and a clear understanding that the work continues. Throughout 2026, Independent Living Canada and its member centres are sharing stories, recognizing disability leadership, reflecting on the movement’s history, and bringing people together through national and local activities.

This anniversary holds special meaning for Cowichan Independent Living. CVILRC was established in 1990, only four years after Independent Living Canada was founded. Our 36-year local history has developed alongside most of the national organization’s 40-year journey. While the national network connected communities across Canada, Cowichan Independent Living carried the philosophy forward here in the Valley.

The progress achieved since 1986 and 1990 deserves recognition, but people with disabilities still face barriers in healthcare, transportation, housing, employment, technology, public spaces, communication, and access to information. Many people spend too much time trying to understand disconnected systems or prove their need for support. Rural residents, seniors, people living on limited incomes, and those without dependable access to technology often face added challenges.

Cowichan Independent Living’s future will continue to be shaped by these realities and by the people who experience them. Listening will remain essential. So will disability leadership, local partnerships, volunteers, responsible governance, and donors who understand the value of accessible community-based support.

A donation to Cowichan Independent Living does more than help maintain an organization. It helps protect a trusted local place where people receive respect, information, and direction. It strengthens community relationships built over more than 35 years. It supports a disability-led organization connected to four decades of progress across Canada.

Our history shows what sustained community support has made possible. Our future depends on people who believe the next chapter matters.

PROMOTING A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON DISABILITY

“Promoting a new perspective on disability” has long expressed the purpose behind Cowichan Independent Living.

That perspective begins by recognizing people with disabilities through their abilities, knowledge, leadership, and potential. It rejects the idea that disability removes a person’s right to take risks, make decisions, contribute to their community, or determine the direction of their own life.

It also recognizes that many of the difficulties people experience come from barriers around them. An inaccessible entrance, complicated form, missing piece of information, unavailable service, or system designed without disability in mind can limit participation. Removing those barriers creates greater independence and strengthens the entire community.

Since 1990, Cowichan Independent Living has carried this perspective throughout the Cowichan Valley. We have done so by listening to people, responding to local needs, building community relationships, and remaining connected to the wider Independent Living movement.

In 2026, as Independent Living Canada celebrates 40 years of national progress, CVILRC is proud to recognize its place within that history. Our Centre represents what the movement looks like at the community level: local people, local knowledge, and local action connected to a shared vision for an accessible and inclusive Canada.

Our story began in 1990, but it is still being written. Every person who shares their experience, every volunteer who gives their time, every partner who works alongside us, and every donor who supports our future becomes part of what happens next.

Together, we are protecting more than 35 years of community trust while helping shape the future of Independent Living in the Cowichan Valley and across Canada.

HELP WRITE THE NEXT CHAPTER

For more than 35 years, Cowichan Independent Living has grown through the commitment of people who believe in accessibility, inclusion, dignity, and personal choice. Our next chapter will be shaped by the community members, volunteers, donors, and supporters who choose to take part.

Whether you donate, volunteer, or become a member, your involvement helps strengthen our work in the Cowichan Valley and carries the Independent Living movement forward.