211 East 3rd St
Salida, CO 81201
phone: 719-207-4573
email: TThurman@cfigj.org
website: cfigj.org
The Center for Independence (CFI) is a 501c (3) non-profit operating under a government mandate going back to 1978. We were started in Grand Junction in 1982 by 3 blind women who wanted to know how to live independently with their vision loss. Fast forward to today and we provide case management and training services for people with disabilities across 12 counties of the Western Slope. Our home office is in Grand Junction with satellite offices in Montrose, Glenwood Springs and Salida.
We do not charge for our core programs since we have block funding from Federal and State performance contracts underwriting our services. We are available for any age, any type of disability, or any income level. The only criteria is that you have a disability. This past fiscal year we opened goal service records for 719 Mesa County consumers, 259 consumers out of county, and 95 older blind adults. In addition, we helped refer 1085 inquiries to other services in the community.
Our programs cover a variety of topics including disability benefits, vocational training and placement, assistive technology, youth transition out of high school into adult services and supports, ALS Deaf Interpreting, Section 8 Housing location assistance, computer modifications for home and work, access to medical treatment, and advocacy for civil and equal rights. This makes us uniquely positioned to be the provider of last resort since we do not require an Insurance card or cash. Additionally, we are not only professional providers of all things disabled, we are also mandated to be over 51% people with disabilities on our Staff and Board of Directors. That makes us the model for problem solving work place accommodations and the role model for people who struggle to cope with new circumstances when a mid-life disability occurs.
