Disability Services to Our Community Since 1971

Milestones are an opportunity to look back at our successes; evaluate and learn from our shortcomings; and a reason to pause as we plan for future challenges.

Abilities Services has created a proud heritage In Crawfordsville, Lafayette, and Frankfort.

Being founded as a grass roots movement in the early 1960s by local ARCs, Abilities Services is now a premier community organization which provides services to clients with developmental disabilities and their families in Clinton, Montgomery, Tippecanoe and surrounding counties. We’re thankful for a collective group of concerned parents and guardians who had a vision and persistence. They advocated legislatively, volunteered for a cause and gave untiringly. They desired nothing more than a voice for their children and improvement in their lives.

Our roots go back predominately to Boone, Clinton and Montgomery counties. By the mid to late 1980s, Boone ARC decided to go their separate way and Montgomery County (then known as ACAPAL – Adult Children Association with Potential for Learning) allied with the Clinton ARC. However, even with a central mission, both counties continued with their own identities. In Clinton County, we were known as The Opportunity Center and in Montgomery County, people still remember our “pallet shop”.
 

Changes to Abilities Services, Inc

The Opportunity Center name and facility has been replaced by a beautiful, new 14,000 sq ft facility located on the west edge of the Frankfort city limits. And, in Crawfordsville, the pallet shop is now closed for nearly a decade, but the remnants of wood products and mulch remind us of our past. Around 1995, we were invited into Tippecanoe County to provide disability services to disadvantaged youth. Quickly and in addition to, we started to fill a void for supported living and job placement services for the disabled. Today, Tippecanoe County represents approximately one-third of all ASI disability services.

Yes, our consumers benefited from those grassroots movements, and our continued advocacy since continues to provide a myriad of opportunities for people with developmental disabilities.

Recently, we’ve extended our mission to encompass those with similar disadvantages. We strongly believe that the baby boom generation and their parents will require and need many services synonymous with our current service base. For that reason, we started and are rapidly growing our non-medical, personal and companion care business for the elderly, Home by Choice. With a strong sense of history, a passion for quality and a commitment for putting our consumers first, Abilities Services is now in its 43rd corporate year with a strong financial budget of approximately $5.0 million.

Abilities Services, known locally as ASI, has developed a talented and highly committed board, staff and volunteer group eager to grow and advance our mission.