ABOUT COIL
The Center on Independent Living (COIL) assists the elderly and people with disabilities of all kinds achieve their freedom and independence and helps them thrive in the community.
We help people with paralysis which currently is not a curable ailment. It is not a bacterial, viral, or fungal disease that can be remedied and repaired with drugs. Paralysis prevails! It lasts until the end of the disabled person’s existence. We help our elderly that develop disabilities through time. It is easy to break a hip or succumb to ailments that young people seem impervious to. Degenerative bone disease, stroke, falls, and a plethora of other ailments plague the elderly. We help our veterans that have given more than their share to preserve our freedoms and remind us daily what true strength and courage is. Many come home broken both physically and mentally.
Here at the Center on Independent Living—We Help!
MISSION
To help people who have disabilities achieve or maintain independence in the community.
VISION
My life, My home, My community: Helping people with disabilities and their families build lives without limits.
HISTORY
The Center on Independent Living (COIL) was established in 1985. It was founded by the dedication of small group of parents whose young adult children wanted to learn how to live independently and their parents listened to them. This required their children to learning how to manage their own affairs, establishing support services, having an income, and transportation. That small group of families was so successful that the Center on Independent Living was born and expanded to offer all these services to all severely disadvantaged people, without discrimination, selection based only on the help needed.
This program soon caught the attention of the Great State of Texas and was adopted initially by Texas Rehabilitation Association and later moved to Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services (DADS). Today, three decades of hard work has accomplished over three thousand successful relocations from nursing facilities and into the community for individuals with disabilities and the number is rising every day.
“Look past the chair, see the person and you will be glad you did!”
—Susan Murray, 30 years living Independently.
AWARDS
``All my life, I always wanted to be somebody. Now I see that I should have been more specific.`` — Jane Wagner
EMPLOYEE BIOS
``Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else.`` — Margaret Mead
BLOG
``Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else.`` — Margaret Mead




DONATE
Make a secure online donation to support COIL.
It is everyone’s dream that as we age or have a disability to be able to live a free life, peacefully, in a community of our choosing. This is you, me, brothers, sisters, parents, grandparents, all of us. We help to make that happen. Please help us make this a reality for the less fortunate that tragically get pushed aside and become wards of the state. Your donation helps save lives and provides light and dramatically improved mental health for those in need.