My name is Lanette Brown, and I have spent 14 years working as a Program Facilitator for the Community First Choice Self-Directed Personal Assisted Services (CFC/SDPAS) Medicaid program. Before joining LIFTT, I grew up on a farm, attended several colleges, and had various jobs ranging from janitor to switchboard operator and from hospital admitting clerk to kindergarten teacher. In the process, I discovered I had an interest in helping people.
I feel the self-direct program is particularly satisfying because it allows the consumer to hire people, they are comfortable with and it gives them the ability to be in charge of their circumstances while, at the same time, accepting help when needed.
Like one-third of LIFTT’s employees, I live with my own disabilities, including lower back issues, mild depression, and diabetes. I consider my disabilities to be minor compared to the individuals LIFTT helps. “I would like to believe I have left a small mark for the better, of the consumers I help, and I feel every day is a success story – if you can get out of bed, arrive at work safely, and make someone’s day a little easier.”
I enjoy exploring Montana and other states with my husband, reading, and playing the piano both at home and at my church. I enjoy cooking, camping, crafting, working word search puzzles, and serving as secretary-treasurer for four irrigation ditch companies.
I have a loving husband who supports me. I have a son who is in the Marines. He is married and they have provided two wonderful granddaughters. We’ve been foster parents, and parents to an international student with whom we have had continued contact.
If you have any questions about the CFC/SDPAS program, please feel free to contact me: lanetteb@liftt.org.
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.