Center for Independent Living
Celebrating 45 years of empowering people with disabilities
By Alice Crann Good / Photos by Kate Treick Photography
In many ways, public awareness and positive changes have benefited people with disabilities since the March 12, 1990, “Capitol Crawl.”
On that historic day, disabled activists left their wheelchairs and other mobility aids and crawled up the Capitol steps, physically demonstrating the need for Congress to pass the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
The visible catalyst worked. President George W. Bush signed the ADA into law on July 26, 1990.
That consequential July 26 is the same date the Center for Independent Living of Northwest Florida is celebrating its 45th anniversary with a Sapphire Soirée, honoring its origins and accomplishments, said Carolyn Grawi, CILNWF executive director, who has worked in the disability community-at-large since 1987 and at CILNWF since 2018.
“Led by Ed Roberts, the first CIL was created in 1972 in Berkeley, California, and the CILNWF was created in 1980,” Grawi said. Today, more than 400 CILs assist people with disabilities across the nation.
For Northwest Floridians, much has changed since CILNWF was housed in a one-room office and received its first federal grant of $22,069. Today, the Florida 501(c)(3) organization is a community-based, cross-disability, nonresidential, private, nonprofit agency located in a multi-office space on South Tarragona Street. It has nine employees (seven full-time) and a board of directors.
Grawi is highly respected by her peers and clients as a stalwart advocate for people with disabilities. Her CILNWF role includes advocacy and speaking on many topics including affordable accessible housing, availability and access to healthcare, inclusive accessible recreation, design and planning of parks, emergency preparedness, education opportunities, reasonable accommodation for employment, accessible and inclusive transportation systems remaining accessible throughout the community and expanding services for more people with disabilities across the four-county region.
And 100% of her staff are people with disabilities, employees who are dedicated to CILNWF’s mission and philosophy, said Grawi, who is legally blind, 38 years with diabetic retinopathy and more than 48 years with Type 1 Diabetes.
“All of us help provide programs, services, and opportunities in four counties — Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa and Walton,” Grawi said. “In 2024, the number of services we provided was over 2,800.”
And when CILNWF calculates back to 2004 when it first had available electronic data, the number of services hits 49,000, she said.
During a recent tour, Grawi encapsulated CILNWF’s “free” offerings with areas/offices dedicated to different programs, services and equipment.
The list is long and includes individual and systems advocacy, information and referrals, counseling by peers with disabilities, independent living skills training, transition services (including youth transition), and assistive technology such as free amplified telephones for people who are deaf/hard of hearing or speech impaired.
“And in 2023 we received an IMPACT 100 Grant of $108,364 for our Mobile Independent Education Services (MILES) Program,” Grawi said. “That program allows us to have a mobile office so we can get to people who can’t get to us.”
Plus, rooms store all types of new/donated/used equipment available at no-cost for long-term and short-term use — manual and powered wheelchairs (for children, too), walkers, canes, crutches, shower chairs and benches, vision and sign language aids, special needs learning toys and much more. In addition, the organization helps clients with their insurance issues, dealing with the red tape, etc.
“You would be surprised how many people have no insurance,” said Deb Sizemore, CILNWF fiscal/office manager, who has worked at the nonprofit for 25 years. “We had a couple of really good examples of that over the holidays. There were two people who became paralyzed; one situation involved an accident, and one was an illness. They had nothing, no insurance. So, we provided them with hospital beds, powered wheelchairs and anything to help their caregivers because their lives were changed immediately.”
Grawi stressed that without CILNWF’s help, “these two people would have been institutionalized.”
“We try to help people stay in the community,” she said. “The idea is that people get to live their lives as they choose so they can live their highest quality of life. We try to do whatever we can for anybody.”
Underscoring the point, Sizemore said, “As far as what we do every day, our philosophy is important and emphasizes consumer control.”
In the disability arena, consumer control stresses that people with disabilities are the best experts about their own needs, have a crucial and valuable perspective to contribute and deserve equal opportunity to decide how to live, work, and take part in their communities, according to CILNWF.
And we are talking about a list of at least 50 different types of disabilities that is comprehensive and not all-inclusive, Grawi said.
“All of the time, we hear about conditions or circumstances that have taken place that changed or altered a person’s ability to function the way they were functioning prior to the change,” Grawi said. “It’s a disability factor for them, and we are able to assist them find the steps or the journey to the next phase of their life. We are with that person for the portion of their life that they need us.”
That said, much still needs to be done, Sizemore and Grawi agreed.
“The big picture is that CILs are working to further independence for people with disabilities, and we do that in many ways,” Sizemore stressed. “The bottom line is people are people first, and the disability is secondary. When you think about equal opportunity for everyone, you can’t make a person with a disability less than anyone else. That’s the whole philosophy.”
While the organization has steadily grown and succeeded with its many efforts to overcome and break down societal barriers, what needs to be done is still evolving and not by any means over, the women emphasized.
CILNWF has a small donor pool and requires more financial assistance as its needs and services grow, and the nonprofit’s board of directors invites those interested in their efforts to get involved at the board of director level, Grawi said.
To donate equipment/funds, sponsor events or programs, or learn how to make a difference, go to cilnwf.org; email info@cilnwf.org; call 850-595-5566 or 850-208-3106 (video phone); or visit CILNWF at 21 S. Tarragona St., Suite 101, Pensacola.
Want to go?
What: Center for Independent Living’s 45th anniversary Sapphire Soirée
When: 6 p.m., Saturday, July 26
Where: Culinary Productions, 201 E. Wright St., Pensacola.
Info: Visit the website cilnwf.org for ticket prices and sponsorship levels; call 850-595-5566 or 850-208-3106 (video phone)
