Our History

Parents and family members banded together to form what would eventually become Community Living Parry Sound back in 1962. To understand what drove these families into collective action, it’s important to know that there’s a long history of discrimination experienced by people with disabilities. Often from the moment people were labelled or diagnosed with a disability, they were separated from their communities and loved ones, and forced to stay in large, government-run ‘treatment centres’.

Those who were sent to institutions like Huronia Regional Centre in Orillia were systematically robbed of their autonomy, dignity, and potential – this segregation remained the status quo for over 130 years. A tipping point was reached when parents began to demand that their loved ones with disabilities be able to live at home with their families, be educated in mainstream schools, and be paid a real wage for real work. Community Living Parry Sound and many other agencies like ours exist because of the families who championed this change – thanks to them, there’s a new status quo: people with disabilities can make their own choices and live independently in their community.