The Resource Center for Independent Living is proud to announce that it has received a $40,000 Nursing Home Transition grant from the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation. The award was one of seven grants totaling $280,000 awarded by the Reeve Foundation to Centers for Independent Living nationwide for nursing home transitions. This grant program is part of the Quality of Life Grants Program, conceived by the late Dana Reeve, which has awarded over 2,900 grants totaling over $22 million since 1999.
Funding for the grants is made available through the Paralysis Resource Center operated by the Reeve Foundation under a cooperative agreement with the Administration for Community Living in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
RCIL is honored to receive these grant funds, which will be used to assist people who are transitioning out of nursing homes to community-based living. It is the mission of RCIL to support the decisions of people with paralysis regarding their life choices, and this funding allows RCIL to fill any gaps in necessary equipment or home establishment goods not covered by other sources. Whether it is a ramp, grab bars, adaptive silverware, a wheelchair battery, or any other needed item, the Reeve Foundation grant can help to cover that cost and help that person move out of a nursing facility and into a home.
RCIL would like to thank the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation Quality of Life Grants Program for providing funding to RCIL that will help give greater independence to individuals with disabilities.
The PRC’s Nursing Home Transition grants funds Centers for Independent Living across the country to transition people with paralysis living in nursing homes back into their homes or a community-based setting of their choice. Under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act passed in 2014, CILs are charged with supporting individuals to transition into community-based settings as a new core service, but CILs often lack the resources to do so robustly. The PRC’s NHT grants serve to supplement the work CILs are already doing to fulfill their responsibilities under WIOA and to help achieve the Reeve Foundation and ACL’s shared mission of full community participation for people with disabilities. For this grant, paralysis is functionally defined as a difficulty or inability to move one’s arms or legs due to a
neurological condition such as spinal cord injury, traumatic brain injury, spina bifida, cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, ALS, and many other chronic conditions that coexist with developmental, congenital, and acquired disabilities.
“These grants are intended to improve the quality of life for individuals by becoming part of the solution nationwide to decrease the unnecessary segregation and isolation of individuals living with functional paralysis,” said Maggie Goldberg, VP of Policy and Programs at the Reeve Foundation. “Our new program funding allows us to further help the aging and paralysis populations and create more community inclusion, which is our ultimate goal. We are excited to have this opportunity to expand our grant program, and hope to work with them again in the future.”
About the Resource Center for Independent Living
RCIL is a nonprofit organization offering individuals with disabilities a wide range of
independent living and advocacy services so they can live THEIR Lives THEIR Way, at home and
in the community as safely and independently as possible. For more information about RCIL
please visit www.rcil.com or call 315-797-4642.