Thursday, May 23rd, 2013

Regular readers of our blog will have noticed that the staff of M&L Special Needs Planning, LLC has spent the last year working on a project that is very near and dear to our hearts: the Independent Living Program Housing Project.

Finding reliable, current, and comprehensive information on existing housing and independent living programs can be time consuming, exhausting, and demoralizing.  The majority of programs are state specific, and often the information available on these programs can be hard to access. Many organizations that offer these programs simply don’t have the resources to reach out to the public – and as those involved with housing programs are aware, there simply aren’t enough programs to accommodate those who wish to participate in them.

Our Independent Living Program Housing Project will change this frustrating search for programs for the better – in fact, it will revolutionize the way that Americans search for these types of programs. This exciting project will be a one-of-a-kind database containing information on housing and independent living programs from across the United States of America. Never before has this information been organized in a way that is both easily accessible and, most importantly, current.

The information contained in the database will be searchable by state; this feature will eliminate unnecessary and time consuming research. The database will also include information on the cost for these programs, and whether each program can be funded by private pay or government benefits (SSI, Medicaid Waiver, Housing Voucher, etc). We are committed to keeping this information reliable and current by constant contact with the owners, organizers and operators of each program. Subscribers to this database will also have access to the contact information and website for the Adult Service Agencies, Medicaid, and the Arcs for each state. As well, as a part of our commitment to providing the information and resources needed to plan a successful future, we have included definitions of each type of housing, information on the housing options available to individuals with disabilities, and provided other general resources and articles that are pertinent to your housing and independent living program search. The staff of M&L Special Needs Planning will be there to support you in your search – we will resolve any technical issues, are available to answer questions, and for a fee we will investigate any program which you feel might suit the needs of your family with special needs.

The idea for this project was born from my search for housing/independent living programs for my own family member with special needs, my daughter Ellie. I have often worried about where she will live, if she will be happy, and if she will be surrounded by supportive friends and peers. I would like to see my daughter engaged in meaningful work, with a rich personal life – I would also like for this to be affordable, and accomplished in my lifetime. Through my own search for these programs, I realized how hard it is to access information, how overwhelming the search can be, and how disappointing it is to follow up on a promising lead only to discover that you have the wrong information, the program regulations or costs have changed, etc.

This project is designed for all the parents out there who have asked themselves similar questions about their sons or daughters with special needs – we have created this database to be the first (and hopefully the only) place for parents to turn to for answers. Subscribers to this database will have access to all of the information listed above, and will have the reassurance that the information is reliable and accurate. This state-of-the-art database will save time, energy, and frustration, and can result in the discovery of a program that exactly suits the needs of your family and your family member with special needs.

As we mentioned, the staff of M&L Special Needs Planning have been working on this project for more than a year. It isn’t 100% complete – the nature of housing and independent living programs is fickle, transient, and changes exponentially; because of this, the database will probably never have information on every single program that currently exists. We do guarantee, however, that the information on the database is accurate and up-to-date, and we pledge to keep searching for and researching new programs – the database will continually grow and expand with every new program addition. As well, any subscriber or customer who can provide information about currently existing programs, program proposals, funding for programs, or programs in the planning stages that are not in our database will receive a discount on the subscription fee.

The Independent Living Program Housing Project database will be launched on our website in the late summer/early fall. For more information about this program, please contact us! We are more than happy to answer any questions you may have, and we love to talk about our exciting project. If you would like to be notified when the database launches, you can subscribe to our newsletter. We will release information regarding subscription fees and contributor bonuses closer to the date of the launch.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read our blog today. From all of us to all of you, Happy Thursday!