Healthy Community Living: Real People. Real Places. (MT UCEDD)

November 3, 2016

The Healthy Community Living (HCL) project is about all people having opportunities to live well and participate fully in their communities. We had an opportunity to present, via a short video and a variety of sponsored sessions, at the 2016 APRIL Conference in Reno, Nevada. We spoke to disability advocates from Centers for Independent Living and other organizations. Attendees learned how that they could help tell the story of their communities, through sharing photos, videos, and stories with the HCL team. The media we collect becomes public, and will also go to support two curriculums: Community Living Skills and Living Well in the Community. The goal of these curriculums is to improve people's health by providing support, health promotion, education and opportunities for people to succeed by reaching personal goals. These curriculums will encourage participants to explore skills for community living both online and in person with peers and allies.

The ongoing development of HCL is a partnership between The Rural Institute for Inclusive Communities, Research and Training Center on Disability in Rural Communities (RTC: Rural) and the Association of Programs for Rural Independent Living (APRIL), which includes eight Centers for Independent Living across the country. People, with and without disabilities, deserve to have authentic pictures and stories depicting their lives. Real People. Real Places. We are already getting great pictures and stories to tell the story of our communities, and with support from the public, we can get more. To learn more about HCL, please visit: www.healthycommunityliving.com Healthy Community Living is a project of The University of Montana's Rural Institute for Inclusive Communities, RTC: Rural and is funded by National Institute on Disability, Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research (90RT50250100).