Grants Awarded FY2000

• Piedmont Housing Alliance Community Living Partnership: This is the first year of a two-year project addressing the need for affordable housing for persons with physical and/or sensory disabilities through the development of barrier-free homes throughout the Thomas Jefferson Planning District. The Community Living Partnership is a collaborative effort of the Piedmont Housing Alliance (The Alliance), the Arc of the Piedmont (The Arc), the Independence Resource Center (IRC), the Jefferson Area Board for Aging (JABA), the Region Ten CSB, local housing non-profits and other community members.
• The Community Living Partnership will work collaboratively to establish up to 40 small barrier-free community living homes in single family neighborhoods within the planning district over the next five to ten years. Each home will provide housing for 4 to 6 persons with disabilities. During the two year RSIF grant period, the Alliance anticipates building up to 5 small barrier-free community living homes providing housing for 20 to 30 persons with physical and sensory disabilities.
• The Alliance also anticipates providing funding for home safety modifications for at least 30 elderly and/or disabled persons per year. RSIF grant funds will be used by the Alliance to identify potential home sites, develop funding resources, plan and dev elop the actual homes, and identify potential applicants. The program will educate the general public, public agencies, and private providers about the ease of providing barrier-free housing for persons with these disabilities.
• Wintergreen Adaptive Skiing Administrative/Storage Building: This is a one-year project to construct a building for this program which teaches people with disabilities to ski at a nearby resort in Nelson County. The building was originally planned to be 12' by 16', but with several thousands of dollars of donated materials and labor, the building will be significantly larger and has a deck around it. The building will be used for equipment storage and office space. The building allows the staff to more easily administer the program, store and repair equipment, and assess students in a private setting to prescribe teaching methods, and provides the opportunity for disabled and non-disabled persons to get together socially before and after skiing.

  The Wintergreen Adaptive Skiing Program helps in the development of public awareness of disabilities, helps in the development and transition to independent living for those with a disability, and helps in the overall development of physical and emotional health by creating opportunitie s for vigorous, wintertime exercise and by creating lifetime recreational skills. The addition of the administrative/storage building will allow the program to increase the number of students served from approximately 70 per year to approximately 125, allowing the staff to continue giving lessons to those with cerebral palsy, spina bifida, para and quadriplegia, hemiplegia, amputations, visual impairments, hearing impairments, mental retardation, severe learning disabilities, autism and other physical and sensory disabilities.

• Jefferson Area Board for Aging Minnesota Ramps: This grant is a continuation of the 1999 ramp installation program. The funding extension will ensure that at least one ramp will be constructed in each locality throughout the region by the end of FY2000. The program serves clients who are physically disabled and homebound. The Minnesota ramps are fairly simple to install, are of good quality, and can be re-located as needs change. Ramps were installed in the counties of Nelson, Albemarle, Fluvanna and Louisa in FY1999. This year ramps will be installed in Greene County and the City of Charlottesville.