The National Rural Independent Living Network, funded to Murray State University (Kentucky) by the National Institute of Handicapped Research, is developing Community Independent Living Service Delivery Systems (CILSDS) for rural people with disabilities which will be housed in over 500 communities by early 1986. The CILSDS, staffed by citizen volunteers and professionals, are currently located in 20 communities and are linked by a network of individual volunteers, existing service and social clubs, libraries, churches, country stores, volunteer fire departments, and numerous other agencies and organizations that wish to help their disabled neighbors lead relatively independent lives. Project staff spend time in each community identifying residents who have disabilities and determining their independent living needs, as well as assessing community volunteer resources. Creating CILSDS is a natural extension of dynamic and community-responsive public school special education programs. Involving trained volunteers in the provision of services to people who have disabilities can reflect positively on schools and human service agencies. The CILSDS can become focal points for total community interdependence across a wide band of services. A diagram showing lay citizenry resource networks and professional resource networks, linked through the central core of the public school, is provided. (MH)