“An accessible future is one where inclusion is the default, not the exception.”
 

When Michael Bloom, Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer of Incompass Human Services joined CIL’s Accessible Futures: Live! series for an episode on accessibility planning for service providers, he shared that vision alongside a perspective shaped by his own experience as a caregiver.

The conversation touched on the importance of personalized support, the freedom to make choices, and the opportunity for people with disabilities to learn, grow, and participate fully in their communities. These ideas are central to Incompass Human Services and its longstanding partnership with CIL.

Serving Greater Lowell and Greater Lawrence, Massachusetts, Incompass supports people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, autism, acquired brain injuries, and other support needs, as well as teens, young adults, and families. The organization calls its team members Care Champions, a reflection of their ability and commitment to finding innovative, personalized ways to help people live fuller lives.

That’s a commitment that CIL shares. As a nonprofit real estate provider, CIL’s mission is to help people with disabilities live in their communities, and partnerships with service providers like Incompass bring an important perspective to the process, connecting the physical design of a home with the everyday needs and aspirations of the people who live there.

In 2022, CIL and Incompass partnered on a new-construction residential project designed for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and acquired brain injuries. The home features extra-wide hallways, integrated ceiling lifts, and accessible kitchen spaces with roll-under work surfaces. These details help residents navigate daily routines and make greater use of their homes. When CIL returned for a walkthrough in late 2025, they had an opportunity to reconnect with the people who bring the space to life.

The partnership also creates opportunities to share ideas beyond individual projects. During Accessible Futures: Live!, Bloom raised the concept of the dignity of risk: the idea that people should have the opportunity to make choices, try new things, and stretch beyond their comfort zones, with appropriate support.

As he put it, “How can we promote that right to risk, that right to learn new things and grow and make that accessible too?”

It’s a valuable question for housing developers and service providers alike. Accessibility involves more than ensuring someone can move safely through a space. It also considers how an environment can support personal choice, new experiences, and the freedom to live life on one’s own terms.

CIL and Incompass have continued that conversation with others in the field. At ANCOR Connect 2026 in Boston, they presented Room to Grow: Expanding Residential Capacity Through Strategic Partnerships. The session explored how collaboration and creative problem-solving helped expand residential capacity in Massachusetts by more than 50% in under a decade, including strategies for navigating funding and policy challenges and supporting people with medically complex needs.

The work of expanding community-based housing takes cooperation across disciplines, and CIL values the experience and ideas Incompass brings to that effort. Together, we are helping create more choices, more opportunities, and shaping what as accessible future can look like.

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