Disability Resource Center
Civic and Social OrganizationsMassachusetts, United States51-200 Employees
Based in Salem, Massachusetts, the Disability Resource Center is a consumer-controlled, community-based agency that provides services and supports to people of all ages with any type of disability. A majority of the board and staff are individuals with disabilities, and leaders act as role models of independent living while guiding consumers who set their own goals and progress at their own pace. Founded as a nonprofit in 1987, it offers social services, information and referral, peer counseling, advocacy, and independent living skills development for residents of the North Shore and Cape Ann. The center grew from the North Shore Self Help Group, which started in 1980 as a local chapter of the Project in Self Advocacy, in response to efforts to establish new Independent Living Centers by the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission. These early experiences inform the center’s ongoing mission and service approach in the region.