Dear ILO Families and Friends,
As we enter the holiday season of 2018, ILO is very excited to share new developments in our organization—most of which have come about as a result of our work with self-advocates, feedback from our families, and a growing interest in our model across the region.
ILO continues to grow our model of establishing supportive communities to create full lives for the young men and women we work with in the Washington Metropolitan area. We are building an infrastructure and team of professionals that is enabling ILO to become an organization that is both sustainable and a model of best practices.
Two years ago, ILO hired its first part-time community builder to support five self-advocates moving into The Crossings in Gaithersburg. This year ILO the team includes:
- An Executive Director
- Three Community Builders
- A Skills Inventory Master Consultant
- Three Skills Inventory Administrators
- An ILO Community Group Coordinator
- A Life Skills Coach
Beginning in 2019, ILO will add a Community Life Coordinator (case manager) to the team.
In the past year ILO has:
- Increased the number of participating families from 23 to 29 families across the Washington metropolitan area and has expanded into Northern Virginia;
- Helped 6 self-advocates move to a “home of their own”;
- Created and nurtured the ILO Community Group (ICG), which now has 58 members. Over the past year, the ICG provided eight presentations on topics such as the ABLE Act, Fannie Mae Mortgages for People with Disabilities, and State Waiver Systems. The ICG also had eight Social Sundays for self-advocates that provided a variety of activities from Zumba dancing to creating Thanksgiving packages for veterans;
- Increased access to the community for 13 more self-advocates through the addition of two more Community Builders;
- Explored ways to create services with a fee structure that is affordable to individuals and families and ensures organizational sustainability, while always looking to maximize the use of public resources;
- Raised $47,571 in donations toward our annual budget of $162,000; and
- Generated $95,255 in revenue from fee-for-service and membership activities.
To support our successful and growing operation, we rely on several sources of income, including:
- fees for services, such as Community Builders and Skills Inventories;
- membership dues for participation in the ILO Community Group;
- special fund-raising events such as the annual Hike and Bike and evening at Beers and Cheers;
- government and foundation grants; and
- appeals for contributions from individuals like you.
As we head into 2019, our primary goal is to raise enough money to attract a full-time executive director and to fund that position for at least two years. The Board believes that recruiting a high-quality, experienced, and committed person is the most important thing we can do to secure ILO’s future. While we will be pursuing support from foundations to make this a reality, we need your help too. We are asking our friends and families to join us in making an end of the year donation to ILO. Your contribution will help us to create a sustainable program to ensure that ILO can continue to grow and thrive in order to maintain its critical mission of supporting self-advocates.
To donate, please go to the website at https://www.ilonow.org/donate/ or you may mail a check to ILO 5603 Potomac Avenue NW North Entrance Washington DC 20016.
Thank you for supporting ILO and may you have a wonderful holiday and a blessed New Year.
Warmly,
Maedi Tanham Carney Matt Hoffman
Executive Director Board Chair
