probably know a lot of these agencies. They are the alphabet soup that are familiar to many Americans, everything from the CDC, which is the Centers for Disease Control, to the NIH, the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration, and, of course, our colleagues at the centers for Medicaid and Medicare services, CMS that we work with very, very closely on many issues that will be of interest to the Independent Living movement. Here at HHS all of these operating divisions coordinate and we work very closely together on many issues, but we also serve very, very autonomously as small agencies or large agencies within the department, each with a specific mission. So here at the Administration for Community Living, we are one of those divisions, albeit not part of the alphabet soup that you hear about in the news as much as you do maybe the FDA or CDC. The ACL was established in April of 2012. We are the newest division at the department. Kathy Greenlee, myself and many of you may know Henry Claypool work together with Secretary Sebelius and the White House to establish this organization here at the department after spending a year working on the president's initiative, the year of community living, to acknowledge the importance of the role of community living for older adults, people with disabilities, and ensure that we have a focused effort and a place to focus on these issues at HHS. In bringing these entities together, we brought together the office on disability, the administration on aging, and the administration on intellectual and developmental disabilities. Now with bringing the Independent Living programs, the national institute on disability Independent Living and rehabilitation research as well as the assistive technology programs, ACL has a basket of programs that serve multiple parts of the population and will further that mission that we established to ensure that older Americans, people with disabilities have the broad range of services supports that they need in order to fulfill the goals of the Americans with Disabilities Act. We see community living as all aspects of community life, including Independent Living, housing, employment, education, care giving and family support needs, et cetera. So we see a lot of opportunity for the CILs and the SILCs to work with us both with our other networks in states and in communities. The structure here at ACL is really established to further that
probably know a lot of these agencies. They are the alphabet soup that are familiar to many Americans, everything from the CDC, which is the Centers for Disease Control, to the NIH, the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration, and, of course, our colleagues at the centers for Medicaid and Medicare services, CMS that we work with very, very closely on many issues that will be of interest to the Independent Living movement. Here at HHS all of these operating divisions coordinate and we work very closely together on many issues, but we also serve very, very autonomously as small agencies or large agencies within the department, each with a specific mission. So here at the Administration for Community Living, we are one of those divisions, albeit not part of the alphabet soup that you hear about in the news as much as you do maybe the FDA or CDC. The ACL was established in April of 2012. We are the newest division at the department. Kathy Greenlee, myself and many of you may know Henry Claypool work together with Secretary Sebelius and the White House to establish this organization here at the department after spending a year working on the president's initiative, the year of community living, to acknowledge the importance of the role of community living for older adults, people with disabilities, and ensure that we have a focused effort and a place to focus on these issues at HHS. In bringing these entities together, we brought together the office on disability, the administration on aging, and the administration on intellectual and developmental disabilities. Now with bringing the Independent Living programs, the national institute on disability Independent Living and rehabilitation research as well as the assistive technology programs, ACL has a basket of programs that serve multiple parts of the population and will further that mission that we established to ensure that older Americans, people with disabilities have the broad range of services supports that they need in order to fulfill the goals of the Americans with Disabilities Act. We see community living as all aspects of community life, including Independent Living, housing, employment, education, care giving and family support needs, et cetera. So we see a lot of opportunity for the CILs and the SILCs to work with us both with our other networks in states and in communities. The structure here at ACL is really established to further that
012615_transcript.docx