Do you care about disability rights? Are you a young disabled leader or activist? If so, your contributions to the community could be recognized with a cash prize of $1,000!
The Centre for Independent Living in Toronto (CILT) is proud to present the 2025 Vic Willi Legacy Award, granted to a young disabled person showing leadership in disability activism and disability rights.
The award recipient will receive:
- Cash prize of $1,000
- Opportunity to have their contributions linked on CILT’s website and social media
Eligibility criteria:
- 16 to 29 years of age
- Person with physical, sensory, mental health related and/or cognitive disability
- Are making a difference with challenging assumptions about disability, are change makers in the community, or display emerging leadership in disability activism and disability rights
- Impacting key areas affecting life with a disability like transportation, accessibility, education, housing, service, integration, etc.
SUBMISSION DEADLINE: Deadline May 18, 2025
To apply:
- Complete the application form: 2025 Vic Willi Award Application
- Write a personal essay or record a video demonstrating:
- What you been doing or plan to do relevant to the criteria above
- Why and how the award will help to increase personal leadership skills/knowledge in the disability community
- How the award money could be used to further leadership endeavours
- Applications can be self-nomination or by another person, in which case the nominator must submit a letter of reference
- Please submit your completed application by email to cilt@cilt.ca
- For any accommodation requests, please contact cilt@cilt.ca or call 416-599-2458
To learn more about the history of this award and about Vic Willi, the CILT visionary and leader this award is named after, please check out: https://cilt.ca/about-us/vic-willi-legacy-fund/
We encourage applications from disabled people who are also part of BIPOC, queer and trans communities, immigrant and refugee communities, poor and/or underhoused people, and other communities who experience systemic barriers.
Support CILT’s efforts promoting the Independent Living philosophy and our goal of facilitating the socio-economic equity of persons with disabilities by becoming a CILT member: https://cilt.ca/about-us/membership/
