Handi-Crafters has taken an exciting strategic step to enhance our mission of empowering people with disabilities to live independent, productive and fulfilling lives.

On July 1st Residential Living Options, a non-profit providing independent housing counseling, education and advocacy for people with disabilities, merged into Handi-Crafters under a new name Independent Living Solutions.

There is a great deal of interdependence between employment, housing and other basic needs that cannot be overstated. By consolidating supportive services for people with disabilities under one roof we are creating greater efficiencies and opportunities to enhance the lives of those in need in our community.

“We saw this as a chance to provide more services to those we work with, as well as an opportunity to reach out to more individuals in need,” states Handi-Crafters’ Executive Director, Amy Rice, “Plus streamlining services such as housing and employment just makes a lot of sense, especially in this day and age.”

“This is a great opportunity to grow our program to meet the need we see out there for our service, remarks Catherine Friedman, Director of Independent Living Solutions.

Through this collective service continuum individuals with disabilities and their families will have access to a diverse set of resources and services that will help guide and support them throughout the course of their lives. This includes school-to-adulthood transition services for youth and their families (job training, benefits counseling, service navigation); supporting adults who seek greater independence through employment placement and housing counseling; and enabling older individuals with disabilities to realize the joys of retirement and well earned fun after a life committed to work.

To facilitate this process, Residential Living Options is dissolving as an independent 501c3 organization and its 4 person staff have begun operating as Independent Living Solutions, a program division of Handi-Crafters.

Through this transition Independent Living Solutions will gain Handi-Crafters’ strong administrative infrastructure and financial stability with a deep history of success serving people with disabilities. In turn, Handi-Crafters will add an important resource to its service continuum and realize a key objective to expand opportunities for its existing clients, put forth in its current strategic plan.

Click here to view the Independent Living Solutions pages.