As October 2026 draws to a close, we complete the first month of LIFTT’s new fiscal year, which began on October 1 and continues through September 30, 2027. We move forward with renewed purpose and an ambitious vision for what we can accomplish together.
Across Eastern Montana, there are meaningful opportunities for LIFTT to help aging individuals and people with disabilities live with greater independence. Behind every request for assistance is a person with priorities, abilities, and hopes for the future. Our responsibility is to listen carefully and work alongside each person as they pursue the life they choose.
I believe this can be an extraordinary year of achievement for LIFTT. Our team brings experience, creativity, and determination to the work ahead. New partnerships and growing community connections give us opportunities to reach more people, strengthen our programs, and put our resources to work where they can make a lasting difference.
The upLIFTT Thrift Store’s developing collaboration with HRDC is one example of that promise. Creating opportunities for practical work experience can help community members build skills and confidence while contributing to a shared endeavor. Our continuing work to establish RideWell reflects the same commitment to addressing barriers that affect daily life.
Our ambitions are substantial, and fulfilling them will require thoughtful planning, responsible stewardship, and steady follow-through. We will measure our progress through the difference our work makes in people’s lives: a barrier removed, a goal achieved, a connection made, or a new possibility within reach.
To our employees, Board members, volunteers, donors, community partners, and the people we serve, thank you for helping shape LIFTT’s future. Your trust and participation give this work its direction and strength.
As the holiday season approaches, we also want to extend our warmest wishes. Should our busy schedules prevent us from publishing another newsletter before the end of 2026, please accept this early greeting: Happy Holidays from all of us at LIFTT! May the coming weeks bring you peace, good health, companionship, and reasons for hope.
We look forward to all we can accomplish together in the year ahead.
Carlos A. Ramalho, Executive Director
Living Independently for Today & Tomorrow (LIFTT)
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/