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The Usual--
We've really enjoyed the Friday night high school football games so far. It's been really rewarding for CLI staff to see the positive IRL social networking effects of all the community-integrated volunteer work CLI has helped people do over the last few years. If we're standing around the concession stand or even on the sidelines, people go out of their way to say hi and then go on to tell the CLI staff that they know the person from Pigs Fly, or the Clothing Bank, or wherever. It's neat to see people forge meaningful connections outside of our small group.
CLI has been pushing out after-hours programs this summer and fall. Interest is growing among clients in our day programs, but our target demographic is people who are working a community job and really hasn't had much opportunity to socialize with peers, or to stay physically active, or work on personal interests. The reality is that coming to day programs 5 days a week is already pretty expensive and there might not be any money left over in someone's personal budget to do the afterhours stuff. CLI is very interested to helping individuals be more independent in the family home using remote support technology and monitoring. One of our goals is to "braid" these cheaper remote supports with more meaningful community-integrated after hours activities so that we can have more of a positive long-term impact for the same amount of money that we are currently spending. If we want things to change for the better for people, then we need to make changes. Otherwise 20 years from now, we're going to be in exactly the same place and it will still cost more money.
Speaking of money-- the Huron County Board of DD is on the ballot this fall, so I want to take this opportunity to tell everyone that it is their responsibility in a democracy to vote for what you believe in -- and to remind people that when CLI provides a service to a person with DD, we bill the Ohio Department of DD, who then collects more than a third of that amount from the County Board of DD in the county that the person lives in. The reality is that the Medicaid money that pays for CLI and other DD providers services would not be available at all if the local county boards of DD aren't able to supply the local match. I know that it's confusing because all the DD providers are private companies, but these local tax levies matter more than ever!
We haven't made any new progress on our Kenilee Wheelchair Accessibility fundraising so far this week. Please let me know if you know of any potential donors that would like me to come talk to them about what we're trying to do. For anyone interested in making a donation, the Dorn Foundation has offered CLI a "Challenge Grant" that will match up to $15k for money that we raise between September 15 and December 31, 2025! We'll be figuring out a way to put all donors names in the finished space after renovations-- so you'll get full credit...
Have a great weekend!
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