A nonprofit organization helping people with developmental disabilities wants additional funding from Pulaski County. Peak Community Services operates group homes and day programs in Winamac and Logansport.
CEO Chris Nabors told the Pulaski County Council Monday that the organization used to receive $30,000 in county funding, but that was cut in half in 2015. Now, he’s asking the county to restore funding to the previous amount in next year’s budget. “We have expanded into a lot of the northern counties,” he said. “And with us expanding into northern counties, rural counties, what does that mean? Well, we have to have a brick-and-mortar for day services programming. And so we’ll be busing folks, actually, into Winamac, into Logansport, from northern counties, and when we do that, it’s going to create more jobs here in Pulaski County.”
He said the organization is also building new group homes in Winamac, which will generate more tax revenue. Nabors explained Peak provides 24-hour group homes, as well as other types of community living. “One of the group homes we have now, when we move out of it and into a new group home, we’re looking at working with the town – and of course we would pay for this – to put that into an apartment-type town house, where we could actually move clients into the home and receive services,” he explained. “They wouldn’t need 24-hour supervision but maybe, let’s say, six hours of a day.”
In addition to day programs to teach people with intellectual disabilities valuable life skills like cooking and cleaning, Peak also helps with employment opportunities. As part of that, Nabors says the organization operates a workshop in Logansport. “We will take clients from Pulaski County up into Cass County, into our workshop,” he said, “and it’s a 14c, where they get paid a piece rate based upon their productivity level, and provide them a job to do.”
Additionally, Nabors says Peak is also working with local schools on vocational rehabilitation efforts. “Getting folks into jobs, into the communities and doing work trials and things of that nature – you can use McDonald’s or one of the stores in town here, where we place a job coach in there to work alongside them and then do a job placement,” he said. “And if they’re successful, the company has received a qualified employee, and if not, then we try to find something else for them.”
The Pulaski County Council may revisit Peak’s request for additional funds during budget discussions this summer. Nabors explained that the bulk of the organization’s funding comes from Medicaid reimbursements.
