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Special Message
Panhandle ILC is your "Key to Independence" a symbol of the assistance and encouragement we offer to people with disabilities. More than 40 years ago in California, a group of people living in nursing homes simply because they were disabled, refused to give up their rights. Working together, they formed the first Independent Living Center, left the nursing homes, and began advocating for themselves.
This spirit continues in Centers all across America and in Amarillo where we help fill in the gaps left by other agencies. We encourage people to become their own advocates, take risks, accept responsibility, and gain control over their own lives. It's about participating as full and equal members of the community.
The philosophy behind Independent Living is that: "Everyone, regardless of disability, should have equal access to the rights and responsibilities that each citizen has to be as active and productive a member of society as he chooses to be."
YES Students Tour Humanitarian Mission
Youth Encountering Success students were treated to a tour of the facilities by food bank Executive Director Zack Wilson. Their first stop was a garden tilled by volunteers and filled with vegetables that supplement donated food items. Inside the complex, the youth toured a 51,000 square foot complex required to accept, sort, freeze, refrigerate, and prepare for delivery about half-a-million pounds of food each month. The food bank also distributes paper goods, household cleansers and hygiene products.
It was a chance for students to see the agency’s vital mission as a food clearinghouse for thousands of families, their children, the elderly and people with disabilities. Mr. Wilson explained that people just like the YES students can donate their time or unwanted food items to help others. The food bank helps sustain church programs, day-care and senior citizens centers, halfway houses, soup kitchens and missions.
Such tours not only provide YES students a greater awareness of local humanitarian efforts, but ideas about their own futures, as well. Along with a paid staff, the food bank especially needs good volunteers to serve on the Board of Directors or work throughout the huge complex. Students learned that community service is an important part of independent living, and that just about anyone can help others less fortunate.
