Editor’s note: With the March 2023 newsletter we begin a series called “Getting to the core of it” where a LIFTT Team member offers their perspective on one of our Core Independent Living Services. In this issue Communications & Government Affairs Coordinator Jed Barton talks about the service of Information & Referral.
Sesame Street ranks as one of my all-time favorite tv shows, and a search of YouTube confirms that one of the lessons imparted by that show on a regular basis was and still is (feel free to read the following in the voice of your favorite Muppet). “Asking questions is a good way to find things out.”
In my mind that is the attitude that lies at the heart of the core independent living service of information and referral. Living with a disability means living with a high level of uncertainty; not knowing where to go or what to do in a certain situation.
That is where information and referral come in; a consumer once told one IL specialist that the LIFTT team is like a “Human Google” and that there wasn’t a question they had asked that we didn’t either answer or point them in the direction of someone who did.
What are my rights under the ADA? Where can I find accessible housing? How do I ride the Met Bus? Who can help me with adaptive technology, These are some of the questions the LIFTT team has guided consumers the answers to through information and referral.
So if you or someone you know has a question about living with their disability relating to Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security benefits, food insecurity, human & civil rights, affordable & accessible housing, home modification, service animals, adaptive equipment, accessible technology, employment, education, transportation or anything else find us on the web, call us on the phone or drop by the office and we will do our best to provide you with the information or referral contact you seek.
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 disabilities with programs and services 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 southcentral Montana: Big Horn, Carbon, Carter, Custer, Dawson, Fallon, Garfield, Golden Valley, McCone, Musselshell, Powder River, Prairie, Richland, Stillwater, Wibaux, and Yellowstone. For more information, please visit liftt.org or download our mobile app on Apple or Google Play.
You can donate to LIFTT by clicking here.