Cardinal Services of Indiana

Residential: Cardinal's residential living program is available to adults needing assistance with daily living requirements. Residents live in group homes with other residents of similar abilities. They are encouraged to be self-sufficient and as independent as possible. During the day, residents work at community jobs, participate in the community and/or participate in day programs. During the last year, more than 100 adults with disabilities were supported in a group home setting learning daily living skills, such as cooking, cleaning, and accessing the community. Acquisition of daily living skills has allowed several individuals to move from a group home into their own apartment, thus becoming more fully integrated into society.

Children and family Services: Cardinal Services serves the youngest, most vulnerable segment of the population with the purpose of educating children and preparing them for school, as well as offering the skills that parents need to be the most effective in their roles. An emphasis is placed upon proper nutrition and medical care for the proper development of the children. Services are comprehensive and attempt to meet whatever need the family may have, most needs are based upon income (see additional data on schedule o). (continued from part iii, line 4c) Cardinal Services offers three different programs for children and their families. 1) wic is a federal nutrition program serving to safeguard the health of income eligible women, infants, and children up to age five who are at nutritional risk. Cardinal serves over 3,000 participants each month, providing supplemental foods, nutritional education, and nutritional health screenings. 2) head start/early head start programs promote school readiness by enhancing the social and cognitive development of children through the provision of educational, health, nutritional, disability, social, mental health, and other Services to enrolled children and families. 3) healthy families is a program of the department of child Services that works with families to reduce stress while increasing and building upon strengths. Healthy families promotes positive parent-child interactions through child development education and screenings. Services are voluntary and may be received up to the child of focus' third birthday.

Community living: independence is important to us all, whether we live with a disability or not. Cardinal's community living Services support adults to live as independently as possible, yet still receive the support they need. Services are developed based on the individual needs of the person. This includes finding a place to live and the money to pay for living expenses. Services may be as complete as full-time 24 hour staffing or as minimal as meeting with staff once per week - it all depends on the individual needs of the person. During the current year 50 people were served in their own apartment learning daily living skills, such as cooking, cleaning, and accessing the community. Many have been able to secure community employment and earn a competitive wage, thus becoming more fully integrated into society.

Other Cardinal Services' programs include --Cardinal provides transportation Services through the kosciusko area bus service (kabs). Kabs is medicaid approved and can transport to medical appointments statewide -- Cardinal's adult day Services is made up of two programs: adult classrooms and prevocational training within cci. The classrooms allow consumers to spend the day with people at a similar level of ability in a classroom setting. Activities are planned and staffed by trained direct support professionals in 15-30 minute increments and are coordinated to create a meaningful day for every person. For those with the desire and ability to work there is the opportunity to work in the manufacturing area at Cardinal Services, known as cci. Cci manufacturing is Cardinal's on-site prevocational training workshop, providing meaningful employment to people with disabilities. By contracting with area companies to do a job, cci is able to fill a need in the business community, turning out high quality products. At the same time, employees hold a job and earn a wage -- career links is Cardinal's supported employment program, helping people to achieve and maintain employment and independence. Career links' unique program works in partnership with the community and business to develop employment opportunities for people with disabilities. Once a job is obtained, a trained career links' employment specialist provides support to both the employer and the new employee.