2007 PRESIDENT’S CIRCLE
of Donors ($1000 or more)

• William B. O’Rourke Foundation
• Peterson Plumbing
• Junior Service League of Grand Junction
• Gerald Erikson Fund Pikes Peak Community Foundation
• Steven Brown
• Western Colorado Community Foundation

Won’t you donate $1,000 or more & become a member of our PRESIDENT’S CIRCLE so your name or company name is imprinted on our letterhead for 2008?

Equal Opportunity for All

The Declaration of Independence stated it so eloquently: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain alienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. What was true 231 years ago is true today. All Americans want to have equal opportunity to live a life filled with meaning and self-sufficiency. This is at the core of our mission.

CFI Making a Difference

The Center for Independence (CFI) provides independent living resources, support, training, and advocacy so people with disabilities can fulfill their greatest potential. Twenty percent of Americans have a disability. The 2000 US Census listed 24,541 disabled non-institutionalized civilians in Mesa County alone. In the eleven counties on the Western Slope that CFI serves, this number is over 52,800. These numbers are seven years old and rising.

True Need

Not every one of these 52,800 individuals needs CFI’s services. Many people with a disability have successfully achieved their life goals due to strong support, perseverance, an inclusive educational system, and public policies that made architectural barrier removal part of the community landscape. But some disabling conditions arise later in life or progress into more challenging conditions. Not everyone has a strong family unit that can seek out the resources to mitigate a disabling condition for their loved one. Not everyone can muster the strength to live with a disability that taxes their emotional and physical well being. Changing eligibility rules and complex applications for access to life sustaining benefits can be an additional barrier to achieving independence.

Maxine

Maxine has been coming to CFI for 7 years to participate in the older blind women’s support group. She lives alone, and CFI staff has helped rearrange and tactilely “mark” her apartment so she can continue to independently function with her low-vision disability. She can cook, do laundry, read her bills, sort her money, and write checks because she has received training from our staff and adaptive appliances from CFI. She is fiercely independent and does not want to rely on her family to do too much for her. She is pursuing her “liberty” with our help. Our services are no cost to Maxine.

The Therapy Cat

When we met Virginia she was suffering the effects of untreated schizophrenia, living in a trailer behind her parents’ house, without heat, water, or adequate food. She was at great risk of homelessness or psychiatric institutionalization. Her family had provided what they could for her, but they could not cope with her mental illness. We helped her apply for public benefits which allowed her to receive medication; an apartment we helped her furnish; an automated medication dispenser so she could safely maintain her drug regime; and on-going independent living skills training in budgeting, meal planning, and public transit. Today Virginia has a decent, safe place to live with her “therapy cat,” and is stable with her disabling condition.

Our services are no cost to Virginia.

We provide help to people

...Like Maxine
...Like Virginia
...Like so many others
We have been providing community based services on the Western Slope since 1982. We are good at what we do, in part because a majority of our staff and Board are people with disabilities. We demonstrate daily that the quality of life for a person with a disability rests in their ability to function as a person, not as a disabling condition. We share this insight with the people that need our help. The consumer pays nothing for our services. This does not mean there are not costs involved, however, and so we are asking for your help. Our State and Federal funding is limited and has not increased for several years. We need your support to keep our programs going strong.

We exist as a resource for Mesa County residents with disabilities, as well as their families, when they need help.

We also provide a lifeline for the additional citizens with disabilities in the other ten counties we serve on the Western Slope.

We are the link between disability challenges and solutions.

This is the time of year that non-profits in the Grand Valley appeal to your sense of charity and philanthropy to help the less fortunate in our community. CFI is joining this chorus with one exception: We are asking you to invest in our Center for the good of the entire community.

Moving forward offering the best to our Community

Our new facility houses other non-profits, has a community space for use by the community and non-profits, and has a performing stage that we want to grow into a cultural center for people with disabilities. As CFI moves into the next decade, our Staff and Board of Directors have renewed our commitment to mission and services. Look around this website to see all the great services we provide and the results of our recent consumer survey.

You make the difference

The day will come when we have a barrier free community, and where access to services is uncomplicated. But not today. We need your donations and your volunteer assistance to meet the challenges of serving people who live with a disability. CFI deeply appreciates your consideration and ask for your help to help others. CFI exists as a place where people with disabilities can come together and learn coping skills, share their life experiences, display their talents, and fulfill their true potential.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT,

PLANNED GIVING