Statements
Mission
Our Mission: To support adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities by advocating for their rights and dignity, providing person-centered services and programs, and ensuring their independence through meaningful work, living conditions, and access to the community.
Background
New Horizons Corporation, DBA New Horizons Life Skills, was founded as a charitable, 501c3 nonprofit organization in 1971 by Wanda Burkett and a group of concerned family members. New Horizons was the first organization of its kind in Middle Tennessee and has since built upon its roots in the provider community to support over 100 individuals with disabilities across 10 Middle Tennessee counties. We have provided person-centered job readiness and employment opportunities, supported and family-model living, and community-based day programs for over 40 years. In 2019, we decided it was time to rejuvenate New Horizons' community image and change our DBA name to New Horizons Life Skills as well as reimagine our logo to incorporate the many services and programs we offer to our supported individuals.
New Horizons recognizes that individuals living with disabilities face challenges that last a lifetime, and usually need professional support on some level. Our trained staff understands and accepts their challenges, ranging from intellectual impairment such as Down syndrome, to physical disabilities that affect the ability to move such as cerebral palsy, to challenges with social skills, behaviors, and communication brought about by autism, and many more. Many individuals supported by New Horizons Life Skills have been in our care for years (even decades) and rely on us to provide quality services and support every day. We ensure that adults with disabilities live as independently as possible in safe and comfortable environments that significantly improve functioning, self-care, and life satisfaction.
Impact
We focus on ABILITIES: with quality support, individuals with disabilities can lead fulfilling and productive lives. New Horizons Life Skills provides a wide variety of programs and services to ensure adults supported live as independently as possible in safe and comfortable environments. New Horizons endeavors to make a positive difference in the lives of people through offering quality supports and services that are individual and family-centered, stable and flexible, satisfying to the person served and his or her family and able to meet individual needs. The agency supports each person we support, with his or her own uniqueness, to experience a good quality of life in a safe, healthy environment.
Needs
The change in day service focus from the supported workshop model to community-based day services and competitive employment for the people we serve has created new challenges for New Horizons. In order to meet those challenges, we have identified these needs: Excellent recommendations for new board members in these areas: the arts, disability healthcare, music, resource development, and marketing. Local employers who will work with our employment specialist to offer jobs in the community that our enthusiastic disabled adults would love to fill. Partners in our community to help us utilize the assets we have in new ways to accomplish our mission. This could include alternate uses of our current workshop (possibly as a training center for job skills), new business or funding opportunities that would support our mission-based (unreimbursed) services and programs, or imaginative ideas we have not yet thought of yet. Financial support for mission-based services and programs to address the unmet needs of the clients we serve.
CEO Statement
Since I came to New Horizons in 2015, our focus has been on quality of services rather than financial outcomes. The well-being of the adults we support is our first priority. In the residential area, that may mean that we pay (unreimbursed) part of the rent or utilities of the person who has minimal income. In day services, that may mean that we pay for summer camp or other activities. In all areas, we may have higher staffing ratios to assure a better quality of life for the individuals we support. Going forward, we are committed to fiscal responsibility in using the resources we have in the best possible way to support our mission, and we have taken proactive steps to identify and increase funding for unreimbursed services and programs.
Service Categories |
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| Primary Category: | Human Services - Developmentally Disabled Services/Centers |
| Secondary Category: | Health Care - Home Health Care |
| Tertiary Category: | Employment - Employment Preparation & Procurement |
Areas Served
We service clients in Cheatham, Davidson, Jackson, Maury, Robertson, Rutherford , Stewart, Sumner, Williamson, and Wilson counties. The largest number of our clients are in Davidson and Rutherford counties, followed by Wilson and Williamson.
| TN - Rutherford |
| TN - Stewart |
| TN - Robertson |
| TN - Sumner |
| TN - Williamson |
| TN - Jackson |
| TN - Davidson |
| TN - Wilson |
| TN - Cheatham |
| TN - Maury |
