Independent Living
The Lucas County Board of Developmental Disabilities should be the first contact for parents of children with moderate-intensive disabilities. The board of DD provides services and support from early childhood through adulthood.
The board will assist with funding, connecting to outside providers, and creating an ISP, or individual service plan. The ISP is similar to an IEP, but instead of focusing on education, the ISP is person centered and revolves around work, play, and independent living.
Intake Number: 419-381-7300
The Ability Center is a resource located in Sylvania, OH. It's a non-profit organization that services 7 surrounding counties--Lucas, Wood, Fulton, Ottawa, Henry, Defiance, and Williams. The center's mission is to help people with disabilities to work, socialize, and live within the community. The Ability Center offers services such as living skills classes, equipment rentals, assistance dogs, and home accessibility. The life skills classes include topics such as financial literacy, sex education, benefits counseling, cooking, and many more.
To get started, click on the link to the left for more information from their detailed website. You can chat live, send a message, or call.
Anne Grady Services is an organization located in Holland, OH that provides numerous services for both children and adults with developmental disabilities in the Greater Toledo Area.
The main Anne Grady Center is a 67 bed intermediate care facility for people with the most significant health needs and who require a high level of constant care. From there, Anne Grady has four more group homes located around the Toledo area, hosting a total of 28 people.
In addition to their group homes and care facility, Anne Grady also offers a supported living program for people that wish to live within their communities. They teach basic living skills, shopping, financial literacy, among others.
Anne Grady also has an adult day program, offering swimming, exercise, crafting, and music.
Most of Anne Grady's services can be funded through Medicaid Waivers.
The link to the left can provide more information and details on the individual services.
Sunshine provides services for children and adults with moderate-intensive disabilities living within Lucas and Fulton counties. Sunshine offers a continuum of services for independent living. From a 25 acre residential facility, 16 group homes, and the least restrictive occasional assistance to people living with a roommate within the community.
New in 2018, Sunshine also has a life coaching program that provides instruction in a myriad of independent living skills. The purpose of this program is to ease the transition from childhood to adulthood, as well as helping people move from the most to least restrictive setting.
Sunshine also has a variety of social events and activities, as well as an equipment rental library. Click on the link for more info!
This organization, located in Toledo, OH, recognizes the importance of helping people with disabilities live fully within their community as independently as possible.
They provide resources such as daily living skills instruction, recreation outings within the city, and information on how to manage benefits such as SSI.
Bittersweet Farms is a residential community exclusively for people aged 12 and above with Autism. There are two locations in the Toledo area: One in Pemberville and the other in Whitehouse.
BIttersweet has an alternative school and residential placement for students with Autism starting at age 12.
For adults, they also have a residential program for those with Autism. The programs at Bittersweet are rooted in vocational work within their own farming community. Individuals have the opportunity to cook with farm fresh ingredients, grow their own plants, and complete farm chores to learn transition skills.
One of the best resources for people and children with disabilities who are looking for assistive technology trials is the OCALI lending library. This services allows people with disabilities to try out various forms of assistive technology before they purchase it, or even use it for short term instances like a vacation! Equipment from OCALI includes iPads loaded with the speech output app Proloquo2go, switches, head points, and many more. Anyone can rent these materials and you can keep them for about two weeks with the option to renew. They are delivered and picked up from your house.
Best part, it's all FREE!
If you still need ideas for providers in our local area, Provider Guide Plus is now LIVE for ALL Ohio counties!
Provider Guide Plus is an excellent online tool that allows people with disabilities and their families to find, compare, and rate developmental disability service providers.
In addition, you can create a free account and leave your own anonymous reviews of service providers you have used in the past.
