JFSA Achieving Potential: Family Advocacy and Support Services

JFSA helps families navigate the mental health and developmental disabilities systems so that families can take advantage of opportunities they may qualify for and tools to help them plan for their loved one’s future.

Kathy Leb, Family Advocacy and Support Service Coordinator

Education
• Help families understand how the systems work and what help is available.
• Assist with education plans in private, public, or parochial schools, grades K – 12.

Advocacy
• Coordinate and plan for special needs trusts and long-term/lifetime planning.
• Obtain government benefits.
• Letters of Intent.
• Burial arrangements.
• Nursing home and assisted living applications and visits.
• HUD and Section 8 housing applications.

Lifetime Planning
The need for lifetime assistance is a number one concern for many families who care for a loved one with disabilities. With the personalized help and guidance of JFSA’s professional staff, a lifetime plan can be customized for a loved one with disabilities.

The objectives of a lifetime plan are to enable adults with disabilities to live their lives safely, securely and as independently as possible. This plan is aimed at ensuring your loved one will be provided for legally, financially, emotionally and socially for a lifetime.

Family Advocacy and Support Services are funded through the Irving B. Fine Trust and distributions from pooled disability trust funds.