About
The Rhode Island Developmental Disabilities Council believes that people with developmental disabilities should fully participate in community life. Men, women, and children should be able to enjoy family life. Children and adolescents should go to school. Adults should work. All should have decent homes, have friends, and live as independently as possible.
History
In the early 1970s, Congress decided that it was in the national interest to offer people with developmental disabilities the opportunity to live in typical homes and communities, and to exercise their full rights and responsibilities. It passed the Developmental Disabilities Act which among other things established Councils in each State to help plan services and to advocate for the civil and human rights of people with developmental disabilities and their families.
“The RIDDC offers resources, teaching, seminars, and different avenues of doing better things to make their lives more independent and more inclusive.”
Who We Are & What We Do
The Governor appoints the 24 Rhode Islanders serving on the Council. Most are people with developmental disabilities and their family members. Others are representatives of agencies and groups that work for people with disabilities.
Council members are men and women who have an exceptional insight into the obstacles that confront people with disabilities throughout their lives. Indeed people with disabilities face a long list of problems and issues when it comes to education, employment, transportation, housing, recreation, and health care. Working as Council we continue to discover and promote creative ways that families, service agencies and federal, state and local governments can work together so that people can live more independent, fulfilling lives.
Mission Statement
The Developmental Disabilities Council works within communities to promote change that encourages, inspires, makes it possible for individuals to create, pursue, and achieve lives that are personally satisfying… lives that are Meaningful, Productive, Healthy, and Safe.
Our Goals
Our goals are to engage in advocacy, capacity building, and systemic change activities that are consistent with our mission. Also, to contribute to a coordinated, consumer and family centered, consumer and family-directed, comprehensive system of community services, individualized supports, and other forms of assistance that enable individuals with developmental disabilities to exercise self-determination, be independent, be productive, and be integrated and included in all facets of community life.