Five Core Services

Information & Referral

HILC Core ServicesHILC maintains an Information and Referral database to provide information to individuals and families. If we do not have the information you are looking for, our policy is to locate it for you.

Our website offers a great selection of online resources found on our Resources tab.

Individual & Systems Advocacy

HILC works in the community to make a difference in the lives of individuals with disabilities by removing barriers and focusing efforts on accessibility to public services, education and benefits. As an Independent Living Center, we are at the forefront of advocating for access, choice and self-determination for individuals with disabilities. HILC can help advocate for the rights of individuals who have all types of disabilities on both an individual and a systems level.

Self-advocacy: Individual Advocacy are advocacy services which helps individuals learn to advocate for their own personal rights. These rights may include health care benefits, access to health care and housing, as well as many more essential services. Self-advocacy is one of the most important skills anyone can have in their tool kit. HILC is dedicated to helping individuals learn to advocate for themselves in order to best maximize their choices and live an independent life.

Systems advocacy: Systems Advocacy usually involves working to change policies and remove the barriers people with disabilities face in their everyday lives. HILC staff and consumers partner together to make system changes, including those related to government policies, transportation, public accommodation and housing.

Peer Support

The purpose of Peer Support is to match up individuals with similar disabilities and empower each other through encouragement and support. This service assists individuals adapting to life with a disability or transitioning through different life stages.

HILC also encourages individuals to seek out new opportunities.

Independent Living Skills Training

Independent Living Skills TrainingIndependent Living Skills Training includes almost anything an individual may need to maintain or increase their level of personal independence.

HILC provides an Independent Living Specialist (ILS) to assist each person in the development of an Independent Living Plan. Together the individual and ILS set goals and develop action steps in order for the individual to achieve their goals. This process provides the opportunity for individuals to learn the skills and develop the necessary resources to maximize personal independence. This service will primarily be provided on an individual basis; only in the unique situation where the consumer will receive greater benefit from other than a one-on-one situation will a group method of providing service be recommended.

Topics of skills training include, but are not limited to: use of community resources, budgeting, transportation skills, cooking skills, self-advocacy, household management, nutrition, organizational skills, communication skills and stress management.

Transition

HILC supports people who have disabilities and those who are aging to move from a nursing facility to a quality community setting that meets their needs and wants.

The objectives of HILC Transition are:

  • to move people from a facility to the community of their choice
  • identify and eliminate barriers that prevent people from being able to move to the community
  • improve the ability of MO Health Net to provide in-home services
  • and to ensure that there is continuous quality improvement of in-home services provided

HILC assists youth on an IEP that are transitioning from secondary education to postsecondary life.