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A small, yet powerful, group of parents decided to change the system in California on the treatment for people with developmental disabilities. After many years of struggle they succeeded in making the Lanterman Developmental Disabilities Services Act a reality. The Lanterman Act provides the entitlement program in California for people with mental retardation, cerebral palsy, epilepsy and autism and established the Regional Center system to carry out these state mandates. As a direct result of the Lanterman Act, Inland Regional Center opened it's doors to accept cases beginning in December of 1971. We opened as the 13th of the 21 regional centers in contract with the California Department of Developmental Services to provide comprehensive case management services to people with developmental disabilities. We opened with the goal to make the lives of those we serve better by empowering them to be included, independent and as normalized as they were able. For the past 30 years Inland Regional Center has initiated new programs, made technical changes, implemented legislative changes made to the Lanterman Act and all the other things that you typically see of large organizations. Through all these changes, our goal has remained simply to make the lives of our friends with developmental disabilities better as they define it. As so with this in mind we set our mission statement to read....
"As an agency among agencies, Inland Regional Center coordinates with generic service agencies, to normalize the lives of people with developmental disabilities and their families by working to include them in the everyday routines and life rhythms of the community and by facilitating needed supports for them." |