Alpha One - South Portland, Bangor, Presque Isle, ME

Since 1978, Alpha One, a Center for Independent Living, has enabled thousands of people with disabilities to live more fully and more independently in all aspects of their lives. Few Centers for Independent Living in the United States or other public or private agencies in Maine offer Alpha One's variety and depth of independent living services.

Alpha One annually assists more than 6,000 people of all ages, including children and the elderly, with a range of disabilities: mobility impairments, traumatic brain injury, deafness, blindness, other vision and hearing impairments, developmental disabilities, mental illness, and AIDS. For more than three decades, Alpha One has been responsive to the needs of individuals with disabilities, initiating, advocating for, and implementing systems change to overcome the barriers that prevent people with disabilities from living independently.

Since 1978, Alpha One has stood at the forefront of the fight to establish and expand consumer-directed personal assistance, promoting this approach at the state and national level.

As a result of Alpha One's recommendation and active support, the Maine Legislature established the Commission on Independent Living in 1985 to coordinate, improve and expand services for people with disabilities. Chaired by Alpha One's Founder and involving some 200 consumers in two years of study, the Commission issued its report, Toward Opportunity, that called for expanded personal assistance, information services, and financing for assistive technology and home modifications.

Alpha One today manages three distinct consumer-directed personal assistance programs statewide, enabling more than 650 consumers to directly employ more than 2,100 personal care assistants. Alpha One has been an innovator in the services to promote independent living.