The California Alliance for Inclusive Communities, Inc. (CAIC) was founded in 1998 in response to widespread frustration with the California developmental services system and its institutional bias that prevents people from living, learning, working, playing, and worshiping in mainstream society.  CAIC has brought together leading community advocates with the goal of transforming developmental services to support people to lead meaningful lives as valued members of their local communities.  

 In the few years since its founding, CAIC has undertaken projects of great significance.  These are some of our accomplishments:

 ·               Played a key role during the ongoing state fiscal crisis to preserve our rights and services under the Lanterman Act.

·               Hosted the historic Community Imperative Conference in January of 2002 designed to create a turning-point in disability policy in California; a state-wide conference of national significance, furthering the goals of community inclusion and consumer empowerment.

·               Worked closely with Assemblywoman Dion Aroner on AB 896, which sought to unify the developmental services system by shifting the financial and human resources of old institutions to the underfunded community system.  Although the bill did not pass, it captured the passions of the advocacy community and helped change the course of state policy.

·               Participated in the leadership of the Coalition of Californian's for Olmstead (COCO), a cross-disability coalition of nearly 40 disability-based advocacy organizations working to ensure implementation of the US. Supreme Court's Olmstead Decision.

·               Convened the Community Imperative Strategy Group, the only forum where stakeholders from around CA worked through strategies on combating budget cuts and setting an aggressive agenda for long-term structural change.

·               Supported our legal team at Protection and Advocacy, Inc. as one of the three organizational plaintiffs in the Capitol People First vs. DDS lawsuit, seeking to end the unnecessary institutionalization of 6,000 people with developmental disabilities in California,

·               Worked with Developmental Center unions on ways to transition DC employees, as the old institutions downsize or close, to other government jobs or specialized roles in the community system.

·               Formed a National Advisory Board to improve CAIC's ability to respond wisely to the challenges facing California.

·               Continued our work under a grant from the Center on Human Policy, Syracuse University, to further the work of the Community Imperative Conference.

·               Received a grant from the University Affiliated Program at the University of Southern California to develop our public policy research and analysis capacity.

·               Established CAIC-List as a discussion forum for members and to keep the membership informed through updates and alerts.