Patriots for Independent Living

Just inside the front entrance of the Tri-County Patriots Center for Independent Living (shortened to TRIPIL) in Washington PA is a large open area surrounded by their cyber-café. Kathleen Kleinmann, the Director of TRIPIL feels the large “drop-in” welcoming space is an essential part of a Center for Independent Living. She plans in the near future to put a big screen television at one end of the large open room. 

“IL Centers are making a mistake, says Ms. Kleinmann, “by not having a large open space for the public to drop-in.”

Although TRIPIL is considered to be a leading Independent Living Center with a director that is also sought as an independent consultant who has often written for professional journals, Kathleen Kleinmann does not see her IL Center as ideal.

“We reinvent our center over time. We are always changing – going where the need is,” she said. “You have to take responsibility for what you are doing. You have to recognize your failures.”

It is TRIPIL’s success; however, that most people in the Independent Living movement recognize. Standing firm to the IL philosophy, Kathleen Kleinmann, TRIPIL staff and the consumers of TRIPIL removed a board of directors that had become intent on guiding TRIPIL into a social-services model and away from IL.

TRIPIL defended the Independent Living outlook and particularly the role of advocacy against the more authoritarian, less challenging social-service model. Many people see advocacy as risky, because it could offend funding sources. 

Kathleen Kleinmann

Kathleen Kleinmann wrote about the board confrontation in the September – October 2001 edition of MOUTH. In that series of articles she makes a militaristic analogy of the fight for Independent Living philosophy, TRIPIL being the front line, and victory as beating back the forces of self-interest and reform to a social-service archetype.

I have visited many former battlegrounds that are common in this part of the country; from the French and Indian War to the U.S. Civil War, the battlefields are physical reminders of what was won and what was lost. From my bicycle seat I believe that I saw Washington PA, and TRIPIL as something like a previous battleground, where the Independent Living movement can physically visit and feel triumph.

Now TRIPIL is organized so that the membership, people who actually state they believe in the IL philosophy, elect the board of directors. There are currently around 250 members who will get together in semi-annual big meeting, held in the large open area at TRIPIL, to handle the business of the membership. 

Her philosophy of going-where the need is resulted in Ms. Kleinmann halting the publication of the TRIPIL newsletter. The newsletter is considered by many non-profits as their fundamental “product;” milled regularly focusing on narrow issues and highlighting donors or board members. Kathleen, however, made a simple analysis of what the newsletter was accomplishing.

“We stopped doing a newsletter because it was too much work,” said Kathleen. “We will start again when it is a ‘new’ idea – a response to a need and not an old habit.”

The open space, the welcoming attitude and the drop-in cyber-café all point to building the idea of community. The cyber-café at TRIPIL is filled with assistive technology that helps people with various disabilities to use computers. Public libraries, which nearly universally offer public access to the Internet, are often not equipped so that a person with a disability may access cyberspace as typical patrons may.

The Cyber Cafe at TRIPIL

Unfortunately, many people have viewed the Internet revolution as a means to participate in community life on-line rather than in person. For the disability community this has resulted in the paternalistic statement “since our community is not physically accessible, you can join-in over the web.” TRIPIL is using the power of the Internet, however, as a carrot to develop community identity and not to isolate people with disabilities (read about MCIL’s computer lab).

I was invited to sit in on the staff meeting at TRIPIL that I was noticed dealt with many of the same issues that come up in Memphis – only with different acronyms for the service organizations. Just like in Memphis, the service organizations get the money and it is the Independent Living Center’s responsibility to see that the service organization does things right.

An interesting hypothetical question came up that tests the limits of IL philosophy. I don’t know if there is a correct answer to this question, but I believe it makes for good discussion to help understand and absorb the IL thinking. The question was: “Can one operate a group home on the IL philosophy?”

Think about it.

-Tim Wheat