LIFTT’s new fiscal year began on October 1, 2026, and the first few weeks have already brought encouraging progress. An October 22, 2026 update from Freda Mook, who oversees Data Management and Quality Control, offers an early look at the people we are reaching and the goals they are achieving.
The report includes 30 new Consumer Service Records opened in October 2026. Including records carried forward from the previous quarter, it lists 167 consumers across 10 counties in LIFTT’s service area.
One particularly meaningful result stands out: 18 consumer records were closed because all goals had been completed. These completions reflect work with both new and continuing consumers. They remind us that progress often grows from sustained effort, individualized support, and a person’s determination to pursue their own priorities.
The report also records achievements in specific areas, including 44 goals in self-advocacy and self-empowerment, 30 in self-care, and 12 in personal resource management. These are goal counts, and one person may have achieved goals in several areas.
Freda’s work helps us connect these numbers to LIFTT’s mission. Careful data collection shows where consumers are making progress, where support remains necessary, and where we need to strengthen our reach.
That last responsibility matters. While the report includes consumers in 10 counties, this early snapshot shows no consumers recorded in eight counties in our 18-county service area. This gives us a clear reason to continue building awareness, referral relationships, and connections across Eastern Montana.
We thank Freda for her attention to the information behind our work, our team for supporting consumers, and the people we serve for entrusting us with their goals. This is an encouraging beginning, with much meaningful work ahead.
About Living Independently for Today & Tomorrow (LIFTT): LIFTT is a Montana 501(c)3 corporation organized as a Center for Independent Living (CIL). With team members based in Billings and Glendive, LIFTT provides people with disabilites and aging indivduals with programs, services, resources and advocacy that help empower them to break down the physical, bureaucratic, and cultural barriers that prevent them from being fully independent participants in their lives and communities throughout 18 counties in southeastern and south-central Montana: Big Horn, Carbon, Carter, Custer, Dawson, Fallon, Garfield, Golden Valley, McCone, Musselshell, Powder River, Prairie, Richland, Rosebud, Stillwater, Treasure, Wibaux, and Yellowstone. For more information, please visit liftt.org
Our Vision: Empowering aging individuals and people with disabilities to LIFTT themselves above the barriers of life.
Our Mission: Living Independently for Today and Tomorrow (LIFTT) mission as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit Center for Independent Living serving Southeastern Montana is to empower aging individuals and people with disabilities to live independently through education, support, and opportunities.
You can donate to LIFTT by clicking here.
For federal and state funding information for Living Independently for Today & Tomorrow (LIFTT), a Center for Independent Living, visit: liftt.org/funding-acknowledgement/