The Access Center for Independent Living (ACIL) celebrated 40 years of impact and empowerment in Dayton and surrounding communities by hosting an open house on August 22nd.
“ACIL has been housed in many different places over the last 40 years. We finally purchased our building in August of 2022. I wanted to note that accomplishment by giving guided tours as part of our anniversary event. People seemed to really enjoy seeing our offices and hearing explanations of our services from myself or other staff,” said Jeremy Caffee, Executive Director of ACIL.
A PowerPoint presentation playing in our conference room gave attendees an idea of how far ACIL has come since 1984 by showcasing some of our notable accomplishments and efforts from over the years, such as successfully advocating for the installation of curb cuts in Dayton after the ADA passed or working with local Deaf Resource Centers to convince other service agencies and businesses to install text telephones (otherwise known as TTY) so that consumers or patrons who were deaf or hard of hearing could more easily communicate with them and utilize their services.
“It was important to me to showcase our accomplishments over the last 40 years and show how far ACIL has come since 1984 at the open house because very few nonprofits have been in business 40 years, let alone had a long-lasting positive impact.” said Jeremy.
One reason that ACIL has had such a long-long impact on the communities within our service area is because we partner within other organizations often.
The open house would not have been possible without the support of community partners that generously served as sponsors. ACIL would like to thank all of them for helping to make our anniversary happen.
“The ACIL staff wanted to thank our sponsors for their support by giving them the opportunity to showcase their services as well, which is why some of them, like Molina Healthcare, Buckeye Health Plan, and Miami Valley Fair Housing Center had information tables at our open house.” said Jeremy.
Other sponsors and donors who supported ACIL’s anniversary celebration include Square One Salon, Key Bank, April and John Red, Rubi Girls, Baker Benji’s, Jersey Mike’s Subs, The Neon, and Meyer Printing & Design.
ACIL and our sponsors were very pleased that about 100 people attended our anniversary event throughout the day. Notable attendees were State Representative, Scott Lipps, Director Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities, Kim Hauck, Mayor of Fairborn, Dan Kirkpatrick, and Mayor of Yellow Springs, Pam Conine.
Another notable aspect of our anniversary event was the presence of the Disability Caravan.
The Caravan is a collective of people with disabilities, and their allies, driving across America from April to October 2024, visiting several cities including many that are important to disability history.
The caravan itself is a paratransit bus equipped with kiosks that people can use to learn about and/or share their stories about voting with a disability or the Latonya Reeves Freedom Act, which is a bipartisan and civil rights legislation that addresses the injustice of people who need Long Term Services and Supports being forced into institutions. The purpose of the caravan is to honor and celebrate people and places significant to our 100+ year struggle for freedom and justice, share their stories, raise awareness of current issues.
“ACIL cares about advancing equity for people will disabilities in and beyond Dayton. Having the caravan at our open house was a testament to that. ACIL was honored to have the caravan and everything it stands for be a part of anniversary celebration,” said Jeremy.
ACIL is honored to have impacted and empowered people with disabilities in Dayton and surrounding communities for the last 40 years. We hope to continue impacting and empowering people with disabilities locally for years to come.
If you want to look know more about the work being done at ACIL to impact and empower local communities, call 937-341-5202 or [email protected]
ACIL Executive Director, Jeremy Caffee, with representatives from Miami Valley Housing Opportunities and Oberer Management.
ACIL Staff in front of Disability Caravan.
