DCAIDisabled Citizens Allience for Independance

Our Mission

Disabled Citizens Alliance for Independence (DCAI), a community based Center for Independent Living, has been serving the needs of people with various disabilities since October 1, 1980. DCAI services have been designed to ensure that all individuals, regardless of disability, have equal access to society.
We believe that Independent Living is understood to mean that people with disabilities have the right to control and direct their own lives and to participate actively in society. DCAI assists in making cultural and life style choices among options that minimize reliance on others in decision making and in the performance of everyday activities, limited only in the same ways that people without disabilities are limited.

It means exercising the greatest possible degree of choice about where one lives, with whom, how to live and the use of time. This includes taking risks, having the right to succeed or fail, taking responsibility for one's decisions and actions, and fulfilling a range of social roles in the home and community.

In keeping with this belief, people with disabilities are actively involved in all levels of the Center's operation. A majority of both Staff and Board of Directors have one or more disabilities.

DCAI was the first totally rural center to be funded by the U.S. Department of Education, since opening in 1980. DCAI has served thousands of individuals in one way or another over the years. We currently service Iron, Crawford, Dent, Reynolds, Washington, Franklin, Maries and Gasconade counties.

We provide services for both the Community and the Individual.