The Ripley County Productive Living Board is a political subdivision under Senate Bill 40 legislation. It was founded in 1988 by a county wide vote to help establish and fund a sheltered workshop, disabled residences and other facilities and social services for the developmentally disabled citizens of Ripley County. Additionally, Senate Bill 40 boards have fiduciary responsibility over all tax revenues collected for this purpose. This includes ensuring that the tax monies are used effectively and responsibly.
The Productive Living Board seeks to give opportunities for every developmentally disabled person in Ripley County to improve their quality of life. This is achieved by helping our disabled community gain greater personal independence, greater integration into society and higher levels of life skill competency to the extent that an individual desires it and is able to achieve it.
Our vision over the next five years is to provide service and growth opportunities for all developmentally disabled citizens of Ripley County and for their families and caretakers.
We will seek to achieve this in four key areas:
1) Provide a Social Activity center that will serve people over the age of 14 years whose primary concern is to have a place for regular social interaction and the ability to grow in basic life skills. This is now a reality in the form of the Productive Living Center establish April 25th, 2024.
2) Provide after school programs and summer camp programs for disabled young people who are in elementary school, middle school and high school. Many families and caretakers with developmentally disabled children will be able to take advantage of these programs
3) As our developmentally disabled population grows older, their families and caretakers grow older as well. We will seek to provide independent living homes and/or group residences that will give our disabled folks a stable place to live as they gain independence or need greater levels of care.
4) Continue to provide significant levels of funding for the Current River Sheltered Workshop for subminimum wage work opportunities. At the same time we will endeavor to bring in services that allow higher performing disabled workers to integrate into the greater labor pool at higher wages if they so desire.
Our ultimate goal is to help every developmentally disabled person grow to their highest potential of social interaction, job opportunities and independent living.
Next Board Meeting
Our next Board Meeting will be held at 6 PM on April 15th to discuss our DMH provider application status and response to the recent storm damage. It will be held at 506 Pine Street in Doniphan MO)