The Community Loan Fund just closed on a $50,000 line of credit with Creative Living Solutions to help the in-demand agency serve more individuals with disabilities. “With support from the Community Loan Fund, we are able to work with every family that comes to us. We no longer have to turn people away,” says Telberth Forde, Executive Director of Creative Living Solutions.
Creative Living Solutions provides an array of services designed to help people with disabilities live their best lives. Individuals and families can contract with the agency to receive travel training, money management, assistance with activities of daily living, community inclusion and relationship building, development of social skills, leisure skills, self-advocacy and informed choice skills, acquiring, retaining, and improving adaptive skills and self-help skills needed to live independently at home and in community-based settings. The team at Creative Living Solutions can also help people find fulfilling employment or participate in other activities like camps or classes.
Telberth Forde, and a number of his colleagues in the health and human services field were concerned; many people with disabilities still weren’t accessing services through the state. Typically, these were lower-income groups, African Americans, Latinos, immigrants and individuals living in economically distressed neighborhoods.
Forde, who had worked for ARC for 9 years, says that too many people were slipping through the cracks because they weren’t aware of the resources available to them, or because they didn’t have anyone to advocate for them.
Forde and his colleagues founded Creative Living Solutions in 2013 to help address this disparity.
Creative Living Solutions began providing Independent Broker Services (Start Up and Support) to families and individuals living with intellectual and developmental disabililties. They currently serve over 150 individuals in 14 counties throughout the Upstate Region of New York State, with many families still on the waiting list. The line of credit will help them increase capacity and ensure smooth day-to-day operations while the agency awaits reimbursement from OPWDD and Medicaid.
