ID Initiative

Volunteers of America began the ID initiative more than five years ago to help our local offices partner with local programs to achieve growth and program excellence in the delivery of mental retardation and other disability services. This plan grew out of a comprehensive study that looked at service needs, trends in reimbursement, program models, competition, and predictors of successful opportunities for local offices. Since that time, we have partnered to develop five programs for participation in Maine, Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana, and Ohio. Services have been established in Nashville and Memphis, Tennessee; Saco and South Portland, Maine; and have begun in southern Indiana, Cincinnati, Ohio and Lexington, Kentucky. Opportunities for expansion of mental retardation programs continue to develop as states close large institutions and settle waiting list lawsuits. The partnership established by the ID initiative has been successful in establishing mission-driven programs for local offices that have increased the services of Volunteers of America in new areas of the country. 

Featured Story: Frankie

Volunteers of America is proud of the opportunity to develop these services and the quality of support we have brought to people’s lives, including Frankie Lowry in southern Indiana. Nearly 35 years ago, Margaret and Francis H. Lori, Sr. sent their disabled son Frankie to the Muscatatuck State Developmental Center in Butlerville, Ind. “I was 41 and had a new baby. Frankie was getting disorderly and rough,” said Margaret Lori