Founder’s Message:
Thank you for checking out our website! If you are looking at our website, it is likely that you either have a family member with an I/DD or know someone who does. We welcome you to journey with us! We are blessed to have 3 loving, kind, healthy, and life-loving children. While they all have their individual challenges, our daughter’s challenges are definitely more pronounced and permanent. We are here for you and hope that Thrive Living Corp can provide a source of support for you
Our Story:
Tim and Kristen LaCrosse founded Thrive Living Corp in 2020 because they knew their 21 year old daughter Jackie was going to need support throughout her life. She has many strengths and abilities, including a wonderful sense of humor and strong perseverance, but lacks the higher level executive functions and reasoning to safely live alone.
Tim and Kristen searched for care providers, nannies, etc with no consistent luck. What they really needed was an occasional break. They needed someone to understand their daughter’s personality and be a companion and source of support and friendship for her. Their longest caregiver lasted 1 year. Several just stopped showing up. Only one caregiver gave more than a 1 week notice. Thankfully, they had 2 incomes and Kristen’s job had some flexibility so she could pick up the slack until they (hopefully) found someone new. This tiresome, cycle continued for 10+ years, ever since afterschool programs stopped being offered in 6th grade.
Tim and Kristen looked to friends and family for help here and there, but they were busy raising their own children. Their parents were getting older and less able to manage Jackie’s energy and unpredictable behavior. Their other children were becoming young adults, moving out on their own, and had their own lives to figure out.
Jackie expressed her desire to have her own apartment like her brothers; and why shouldn’t she? She pretty much gets herself ready every morning for work, makes herself snacks, helps with housework, knows how to let herself in the house. But there are also a lot of challenges. Jackie doesn’t like waiting and she doesn’t like for herself or anyone else to be late, ever. She repeats certain phrases that bother her mom 10-50 times a day. She doesn’t like crying babies, so restaurants, stores, church, airports-nearly everywhere-can be a real tough go. Her 2 brothers and parents have Pavlonian responses of immediate sweating and blood pressure elevation when we hear crying babies—even when Jackie isn’t around! We’re so conditioned that we have to remind ourselves that we’re ok anytime we hear a crying baby. Tim and Kristen knew that they needed a break and that Jackie deserved a life that didn’t constantly involve tired parents.
The research for homes and communities for disabled adults began when Jackie was in high school. Tim and Kristen wanted to understand what would be available to them in 10 years or so. What would it look like and what would it cost? There were homes in Texas, Georgia, Illinois, Florida and Ohio. They picked a home in Ohio that they really liked-the waiting list was over 300 people. They moved their search to the Florida home-Jackie was put on the waiting list at spot 173. They looked more closely at homes in Georgia, Washington state, Texas, and Arizona-the monthly rent ranged from $2,500 to $4,500—FOR THE REST OF THEIR LIVES! And most of these were full and had waiting lists!
In 2019 Kristen was a founding board member of a group called Rising Heights. Its mission was similar to Thrive Living Corp. Due to an inability to develop a strong framework for that business due to multiple parents with significantly different needs for their children, Kristen decided that she should remove herself from that organization and focus strongly on developing the fundamental framework for Thrive Living Corp. using Jackie as an example of a typical client.
Upon receiving their non-profit status from the state of Ohio, they began a property search. The core values, mission, and vision were being developed and honed. They reached out to many organizations for lending, architecture, financial and legal advice. A few great companies called them back and have been vital to pushing this model of supported living forward. We are forever grateful for their openness and support.
We are currently building our board of directors (we need legal and finance professionals). We are seeking 5-8 families to join us on this journey who are willing to assist us with making this much needed dream a reality. We hope that our respite services will give people the rest that they need and deserve, and that our duplicatable model can provide supported living to other families in the future.
May God Bless You on your Journey and Thrive on its Journey
Thrive Living Values:
Choice:
Empowering individuals to make their own decisions and respecting their choices (as long as the community’s and others’ rights are respected). For example: how to structure your day, who you interact with, and which opportunities you choose to engage in.
Support:
Thrive Living will support our clients by promoting a healthy, well-rounded, and active lifestyle and promote a culture of continuous personal development.
We will facilitate and encourage our residents to engage with existing entities for employment, leisure/fitness activities, and faith organizations to avoid duplication of services.
Thrive will expect that families remain involved in order to continue to support our residents’ personal growth and well-being.
Sustainability:
Financial planning, operations, fundraising, and capital decisions made to ensure long-term viability of Thrive Living and our environment.
Self-reliance through Technology:
Thrive plans to utilize technologically advanced materials, products, and remote monitoring to optimize safety and independence, and reduce dependence on human caregivers whenever it benefits our residents.