United Cerebral Palsy of Middle Tennessee

The equipment exchange provides durable medical and adaptive equipment as well as essential medical and hygiene supplies to people throughout Tennessee, regardless of their diagnosis. Ucp seeks new and gently used durable medical equipment to redistribute the donated items to individuals who have little or no insurance and no other resources to obtain the equipment they need. In fiscal year 2020-21, ucp placed 2,062 items of durable medical equipment and essential supplies to persons with disabilities throughout Tennessee with a concentration in Middle Tennessee.

Wheelchair ramps and disability housing modifications: United Cerebral Palsy builds ramps and coordinates state-wide construction of wheelchair ramps for individuals with mobility disabilities whose homes are without proper accessibility. We also perform a limited number of disability- related housing modifications, such as bathroom modifications for wheelchair access. Working in conjunction with collaborating agencies, volunteers from churches, civic clubs, and other area groups, ucp spearheads construction of wheelchair ramps on to the homes of persons with disabilities across the state of Tennessee. Lumber and supplies for the program are funded through a grant from the Tennessee housing development agency (thda). Ucp provided and our volunteer organizations provided funding and constructions supports for 86 wheelchair ramps and home modification projects across Tennessee in fiscal year 2020-21.

Rutherford county family support program: the Tennessee legislature established the family support program to serve each county in Tennessee. Ucp provides this service for rutherford county. The program is funded by state dollars and designed to assist individuals with severe disabilities and their families to remain together in their homes and communities by providing financial assistance for a variety of disability-related needs. 244 rutherford county citizens with disabilities were served in this program in fy 2020-21.

The educational travel stipend is a joint project with the Tennessee developmental disabilities council. This fund is non-disability specific, and is available to people with disabilities throughout the state of Tennessee. This fund allows individuals with disabilities and their assistants or family members to attend educational conferences and workshops throughout the United states which address a variety of disability issues. The project also brings educational conferences and workshops to Tennessee. Due to covid, conferences and workshops that would have been funded under this contract were not held. Therefore, the council made the decision to assist with technological supports to allow online conference. During this period, the fund supported 20 online conference and workshops with an estimated attendance of 560 persons with disabilities, and provided additional technological supports to 7 persons with disabilities. Holiday boxes: each year volunteers gather and distribute gift boxes for families caring for individuals with disabilities whose resources and family supports are severely limited. Each year ucp volunteers provide approximately 50 families with essentials such as staple, nonperishable food items, warm clothing, bath and bedding items. Sports and recreation: the ucp sports and recreation program is a year round activity for people with disabilities and their families which takes place every thursday evening and during specially designated weekends. We also sponsor challenger league baseball for children with disabilities under age 17 and their non-disabled peers. Each year approximately 35 individuals participate in these programs. Sports and recreation activities were not conducted during the covid pandemic due to safety concerns. Ucp volunteers held zoom calls so participants could maintain their connections with one another.