By Marquise Morgan
LIFE Inc.’s Jesup office is proud to share news of some of our recent developments within Wayne County with our Family Connection partners. We have had success working with the Area Agency on Aging to deploy ramps to various people, including a “Mrs. A” right here in Jesup. We also have developed a new service program centered around assisting people with COVID related expenses.
Mrs. A’s LIFE Story
Ms. A of Wayne County was one of our later AAA referrals, but nonetheless we were able to help her promptly after receiving the AAA info. Mrs. A was a soft-spoken women with post-polio syndrome that had also recently broken her leg. She mentioned the challenge her daughter and granddaughter had getting her down steep steps as a major challenge to her health and mobility.
Our procedures for assessing the need and getting a ramp built are quite intensive. For example, for Mrs. A, we took pictures of the property, measured the door frame and driveway, and sent the info. to Nationwide Ramps for an estimate. After that, we assess our funding options and approve the ramp with a waiver for the consumer. From there, it’s all up to Nationwide’s experts to deploy the sturdy and practically indestructible aluminum ramps for the consumer.
Mrs. A was absolutely elated over the ramp, thanking us profusely and commenting on how much it has eased her and her family’s logistical issues. In a testimonial, she said “it was truly a blessing and we thank you. I appreciate what LIFE has done for me and the ramp has greatly helped”. We were of course happy to help and even more pleased to hear that she felt it had a measurable improvement on her well-being.
COVID-19 Service Programs
Another development that has the great potential to be a boon for Wayne County would be our CARES ACT funded COVID-19 Service Programs. Using our relief funds, we have assembled a service delivery program to assist with various areas of need among our community. This includes food, rental and housing assistance, assistive tech and living aids, home modifications, utility assistance, transportation, assistance for medicine, childcare, and other things that can be linked to COVID related issues. This wide net will allow us to broadly deliver services to assist in a wide range of COVID related problems that a person may be having. Our qualifications for this program are roughly the same as our standard ones for service delivery (live in one of our 20 service counties; Must state that they have significant disability; must be a consumer). This also includes the added caveat of having to fill out some paperwork and do an intake with us to determine their qualifications for the program and to make sure the issue has a relation to COVID-19. Of course, if it not COVID related, we can still help them with our other core services. Without that, they are not eligible for the COVID-19 Service Delivery.
We are excited to be expanding our home modification program and to bring this COVID Services program to the people of Wayne County. If you have any questions, please contact our Jesup office at 912-385-2214, or email us directly at mmorgan@lifecil.com or rblack@lifecil.com. We hope to hear from and we’re here to help.