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LANETT — Tommy Pouncy of the Montgomery office of Independent Rights & Resources recently spoke to the Lanett Senior Center on the work his office does on behalf of individuals with disabilities.

The Montgomery office represents 18 counties in southeast Alabama including Chambers, Tallapoosa, Coosa, Lee, Elmore, Autauga, Russell, Macon, Montgomery, Lowndes, Dallas, Barbour, Bullock, Pike, Henry, Dale and Houston counties.

The mission of the 501(c)3 nonprofit is to empower people with disabilities to fully participate in the community. The office can be contacted at www.independentrandr.org.

Independent Rights & Resources provides such services as advocacy, peer support, information and referral, independent living skills training, transition, computer lab skills, ADA assistance, housing searches and payee representation.

“Independent living is a philosophy and a way of life for us,” Pouncy said. “It is a movement of people with disabilities who work for self-determination, equal opportunities and self-respect.

The independent living philosophy says that every person, regardless of disability, has the potential and the right to exercise individual self-determination. We expect the same choices and control in our everyday lives that everyone else takes for granted.”

Individuals with disabilities, Pouncy added, want the same freedom to try, and fail, and to learn from those failures.

Children with disabilities want to grow up in a family and attend their neighborhood school. As they mature, they want to use the same bus as their neighbors, work in jobs that are in line with their education and ability and to start families of their own.

“They need to be in charge of their lives,” Pouncy said. “They need to think and speak for themselves. We all need to support and learn from each other. There remains a need to work for political changes that lead to legal protections of the human and civil rights of those with disabilities.”