About Us
Founding members of ATTIC are parents of children with severe disabilities. Three of these parents have provided counseling, support and parent training to families of children with disabilities for over fifteen years. Now that these children are older and entering the adult service system, these families realized the need for an alternative to group homes and sheltered workshops. They became acquainted with Independent Living Centers through the Alliance for Technology Access (ATA), which was formed in the Berkeley Independent Living Center. ATA was established twenty years ago to assist school age individual’s benefit from the independent living philosophy and experience inclusion through the use of assistive technology and adaptive curriculum in school.
After investigating options, independent living centers with the philosophy of self-determination, self-esteem and self-reliance are providing service in the areas of advocacy, peer counseling, information and referral, and skills training echoed their beliefs and continued what they were already doing for families.
Taking one step at a time, ATTIC was incorporated as a not-for-profit organization August 28, 1992, after holding eight public meetings to discuss the feasibility of establishing an Alliance for Technology Access center in the county. During these discussions it was determined that an Independent Living Center was the natural direction to take since it was more encompassing of the needs identified at the meeting and was an extension to the philosophy of ATA centers--consumer choice, consumer control; establishing an independent living center would be step two.
An interim board was established to begin the organizational process; locating an accessible building; finding furnishings, equipment and supplies. The County Commissioners permitted the use of 2400 sq. ft. of space in its recycled community building. ATTIC became the 47th ATA center in the country and the first in Indiana in November 1992 and received a Governor's Planning Council establishment grant in February 1993. The ATA affiliation provided ATTIC with on-line technical assistance and guidance with the other 46 centers and about $20,000 worth of assistive technology equipment, resources, software and devices. ATTIC provides an array of services from individual guided exploration and consultation, workshops and user groups, adapted toys, information and resource, training, support groups, counseling, demonstrations and presentations, to inclusion strategies and advocacy.
After the establishment of the center, ATTIC began the process of becoming an Independent Living Center. All ATA centers are required to have a board of 50% consumers and staffed by consumers. ATTIC amended its by-laws to require at least 51% primary consumer representation on the board. All ATA centers, including ATTIC, focus on the individual's abilities and goals rather than on deficits and remediation mirroring the philosophy of Independent Living.
There are currently six federally funded Independent Living Centers: Everybody Counts, Ruben Center, ATTIC, Indianapolis Resource Center for Independent Living, Inc., The League for the Blind and Disabled, Inc., Southern Indiana Center for Independent Living. There are three Indiana Service Centers: WILL Center, Future Choices, ILCEIN.
With the systems change Indiana is undergoing in education, health care and the human service delivery system and the crisis created by the financial climate in the state, many people are examining the cost-effectiveness, quality of service and the outcomes of the current system. Besides huge gaps in the system, there is a lack of choices afforded individuals. An answer to these problems in a comprehensive service delivery system that combines public awareness and education ensures consumers rights through system advocacy and direct appropriate services to the individual consumer. The board and consumers believe ATTIC can impact the community and the lives of individuals with disabilities in those areas by becoming an Independent Living Center. ATTIC will serve as the catalyst to the removal of barriers, promoting independence and self-determination to enable equal access to all activities of life for individuals with disabilities.