Every conversation matters. At LIFTT, we’re committed to planning ahead so we can continue serving our community with dignity, respect, and a focus on independence.
For more than 36 years, LIFTT has had one simple promise: when someone with a disability or an older adult reaches out for help, we’ll do everything we can to be there.
That promise hasn’t changed.
Over the past several months, however, we’ve been watching proposed changes to federal grant regulations that could affect Centers for Independent Living like LIFTT. While we don’t know what the final outcome will be, we believe our consumers deserve honesty about what we’re seeing and how we’re preparing.
The truth is, we hope nothing changes.
We hope Congress continues to support Independent Living. We hope federal funding remains stable. We hope every person who calls LIFTT can continue receiving services as quickly as they do today.
But hope alone isn’t a plan.
That’s why our Board of Directors has implemented a Waiting List Policy, not because we expect to use it, but because responsible organizations prepare for challenges before they arise. Just like families buy insurance hoping they’ll never need it, LIFTT is planning ahead so that, if circumstances beyond our control ever affect staffing or funding, we will already have a fair and transparent process in place.
If that day never comes, we will celebrate.
If it does, here’s what we want you to know:
- You will not lose your eligibility for Independent Living services.
- You will not lose your rights.
- You will not be forgotten.
Even if a waiting list ever became necessary, LIFTT would continue providing information, referrals, advocacy, and connections to community resources whenever possible while consumers wait for an Independent Living Specialist. Our commitment to helping people live independently would remain exactly the same.
Our mission has always been about people, not paperwork, not grants, and not government regulations.
Every decision we make begins with one question:
“How do we continue serving our community with dignity, fairness, and respect?”
Preparing today helps us answer that question tomorrow.
We sincerely hope this policy never has to be implemented. In fact, the best outcome would be for it to sit on a shelf and never be used. But if circumstances ever require it, we want every consumer to know that the process will be fair, transparent, and rooted in the Independent Living Philosophy that has guided LIFTT for decades.
Thank you for placing your trust in LIFTT. Whether you’ve been with us for years or have just begun your journey toward greater independence, please know this:
We are planning ahead because you matter.
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’s (LIFTT’s) 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.
