$94,000 personal assistance grant will help more than 50 disabled Ocean County residents ‘live independently’ this year

Photo via Google
The grant will enable residents
to access transportation.

A $94,368 personal assistance grant accepted by the Ocean County Board of Chosen Freeholders is expected to benefit more than 50 disabled residents living in the county this year. The grant will help 51 permanently physically disabled adults between the ages of 18 and 70 who are either working, going to school or volunteering in their community, Freeholder Deputy Director Gerry P. Little announced in a recent press release.

“The Ocean County Personal Assistance (Services) Program allows these disabled individuals to hire a personal assistant to help them with day-to-day activities such as light housekeeping, personal care, meal preparation, transportation and other assorted chores,” Little explained.

The annual grant has been provided to the county by the state Department of Human Services, Division of Disability Services, for more than 15 years, Tracy Maksel, director of the Ocean County Department of Human Services, which administers the funds, told The SandPaper. The grant is part of the more than $60 million the county allocates toward helping needy and low-income individuals each year.

Individuals eligible to receive grant assistance must, among other criteria, be considered permanently disabled according to the state guidelines for disability, Maksel said.

“Most of the folks taking advantage of the program have ambulatory disabilities, so that’s an individual that would have, without the program, difficulties in accessing transportation, shopping, doing some of the basic adult, daily living skills that we as able-bodied individuals may take for granted,” she added.

In regard to an individual who works in the county and benefits from the grant, Maksel said if the program were not available to him, “he would not have the means for transportation, to go to work, and to contribute as a taxpayer and have the integration into the social activities in the community that he does.”

“His life has, in talking with this individual, been fulfilling. He has felt more so a part of the community and not isolated,” she said.

Little noted the grant would help those with physical disabilities remain in control of their lives.

“With a little help from a personal assistant, these men and women can live independently while at the same time playing an active role in the community,” he said.

— Kelley Anne Essinger


This article was published in The SandPaper.