NUUULI, AMERICAN SAMOA — The Parents of Children with Special Needs Network (PCSN) is pleased to announce a two-year federal award from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Community Living (ACL), to establish and operate the American Samoa Center for Independent Living (ASCIL). 

The award provides $159,762 per year, for a total of $319,524 over the two-year project period, September 30, 2026 through September 29, 2028.

ASCIL is designed as a consumer-controlled, community-based, cross-disability, nonresidential Center for Independent Living led by and for people with disabilities. 

The project will create a permanent local resource hub where people with significant disabilities can receive practical support to live independently, make informed choices, strengthen self-advocacy, remain in or return to the community, and connect with education, employment, health, benefits, transportation, housing, assistive technology, and other community resources.

“This award represents an important step toward ensuring that people with disabilities in American Samoa have a place of their own to seek information, peer support, advocacy, skills, and transition assistance. ASCIL is built on the principle that people with disabilities should lead the decisions that affect their lives and their communities.”

PROJECT GOAL AND OBJECTIVES

• Establish a fully operational, consumer-controlled CIL with compliant governance, staffing, fiscal, data, accessibility, and Section 725 systems.
• Deliver all five federally required Independent Living core services to people with significant disabilities across American Samoa.
• Expand consumer-directed transition and community-living supports including youth transition, institutional diversion, and assistance for individuals moving from restrictive settings into community life.
• Strengthen territorial coordination and systems advocacy by building referral pathways, tracking service barriers, elevating consumer voice, and working with public and community partners to improve access and inclusion.

Over the two-year project, ASCIL expects to serve at least 145 unique consumers, provide at least 1,000 documented Independent Living service contacts, reach transition-age youth and young adults, support individuals at risk of institutionalization, and pursue measurable systems improvements that strengthen access and community participation.

CORE SERVICES AVAILABLE TO THE COMMUNITY

• Information and Referral: Connecting consumers to services, benefits, programs, and community resources.
• Independent Living Skills Training: Building practical skills for self-direction, daily living, technology use, budgeting, communication, employment readiness, and community participation.
• Peer Counseling and Peer Support: Support and encouragement from people with lived disability experience.
• Individual and Systems Advocacy: Helping consumers understand rights, request accommodations, prepare for meetings, address barriers, and participate in broader systems change.
• Transition Services: Supporting youth moving into adult life and helping individuals remain in or transition back to home- and community-based living.

WHO ASCIL SERVES

ASCIL serves children, youth, adults, elders, veterans, and people with physical, intellectual, developmental, sensory, behavioral-health, mobility, chronic-health, and multiple disabilities. Services are cross-disability and are guided by each consumer’s own goals, priorities, and choices. Families and caregivers may also receive information and support when it advances the independent living goals of the individual with a disability.

PARTNERSHIP AND COMMUNITY SUPPORT

ASCIL extends its sincere appreciation to the partners who supported development of the project and who will help strengthen coordinated service pathways, including the American Samoa Office of Vocational Rehabilitation and Statewide Independent Living Council; American Samoa Department of Education Special Education; Office of Protection and Advocacy for the Disabled; Department of Health and Leo O Aiga; Department of Human and Social Services; Pacific Center in Human Security/ASCC UCEDD; EPIC; CFO Plus; healthcare providers; and community, village, faith-based, education, workforce, and disability-serving partners.

Their collaboration will help ensure that ASCIL complements existing systems while filling critical gaps in consumer-directed Independent Living support.

ASCIL also thanks the many individuals with disabilities, family advocates, Board members, volunteers, and community leaders whose lived experience and advocacy helped shape this effort. Their voices remain central to the Center’s governance, priorities, services, and systems-advocacy agenda.

CONTACT ASCIL

American Samoa Center for Independent Living — Empowering Individuals. Strengthening Communities: Location Nuuuli, directly across from Paradise Inc., 1st Floor, Ask for Alofa or Mercy, Phone 731-2960, Email ascil.byusforus@gmail.com