History

In 1955, a group of Southwestern Minnesota residents, concerned over the manner in which educable physically handicapped children in the state were being neglected, organized the SW Minnesota Crippled Children’s School, Inc.

In November 1957, the SW Minnesota Tuberculosis Sanatorium in Worthington was closed for a lack of patients and was offered for sale.  The new corporation purchased the buildings and property for $75,000 and engaged an architectural firm to plan its conversion into dorms and classrooms suitable for special education purposes.  In 1960, the Attorney General ruled that group living was part of the education of handicapped children, so the Worthington School District 518 leased these facilities and grounds for Lakeview School.

1967 — The Achievement Center opens with first client
1974 — McMillan Home opens on McMillan Street
1975 — Begins services as an ICF/MR facility
1982 — Semi-Independent Living Services (SILS) begins
1983 — Windsor Apartment opens
1983 — Community Living Alternatives, CCSI’s waivered service program, begins
1987 — Began providing services in Windom
1988 — CCSI opens its first waivered home in Sibley, Iowa
1990 — Name of corporation changed to Client Community Services, Inc. – CCSI
1990 — Luverne begins waivered services
2001 — CCSI constructs its first new, handicapped accessible home at 1005 E. Ninth Avenue
2006 — On June 2, 2006, Corporate Offices moved to Downtown Worthington at 826 Fifth Avenue. The property at 1930 First Avenue SW was sold to a developer group and the buildings were demolished in fall 2006.
Since 1990, CCSI’s growth has been in the waivered services program. We currently own 8 homes in Worthington, 2 in Windom, 2 in Luverne and 2 in Sibley, Iowa.  There are also sites in various towns in Southwest Minnesota where staff provides semi-independent living services in the individual’s private home.