West Mont maintains its commitment to developing and providing services for those with developmental disabilities. Our current project is West Mont Farm & Gardens. Prior to this, Ron's Place was built and completed in 2016. Ron's Place is a new group home for medically fragile people with disabilities who require nursing care and more attention than what a traditional group home environment can provide. Once Ron’s Place was completed, we turned our focus to the Farm group home and its land which is in need of upgrades and extensive renovations. West Mont Farm & Gardens group home was built in 1989 by mostly volunteers. The Farm is located on 34 acres in the Helena valley. Phase I of the Farm project was renovating the home. Over the years, it became quite evident that it was lacking in several areas including ADA accessibility. In addition to the group home, it is an agricultural vocational program for 25 people with disabilities. Phase II of the Farm project is to do major updates to the grounds. West Mont continues to raise funds for its Farm & Gardens project. We completed Phase I of the project, major renovations and much needed improvements to the group home. Phase II includes extensive updates on the land. This will include adding community gardens, a maze, and Interpretative Path with antique farm equipment that has already been donated. The renovations to the home were completed in October 2019. We are planning on breaking ground on the new landscaping and additions in 2020. Our Tara group home is also in need of renovations. It is one of our larger residential programs, housing 14 people with disabilities within its group home and adjacent apartment complex. Interior repairs will include new counter tops and updating as well as remodeling the garage which functions as a storage facility for the home. The grounds at Tara need to be more accessible and practical for the clients that live there. It is in need of new fencing, a new deck, patios, and updated landscaping. West Mont also continues to formulate new ways to generate income for its programs and expansion efforts. Although most of our funding is from the government, in order for us to expand programs or build new facilities, we must raise the revenue. We want to continue to provide new opportunities and choices that empower people with disabilities.

For West Mont to expand services or build new facilities, we must raise the funds through grants, donors, fundraising events, or secure loans. For several years, West Mont did extensive fundraising for Ron's Place and was fortunate to raise all of the money for this project. We broke ground on this new facility in October 2014 and construction was completed in September 2015. Ron’s Place became a reality! In 2016, West Mont received a $35,000 CDBG Planning Grant for an architectural study of how to improve our Farm & Gardens group home. This grant identified several problems with the home. In 2019, extensive renovations and updating was done to the home including electrical, plumbing, and mechanical systems, a deck expansion, and the bathrooms, kitchen, living, and exercise rooms were all remodeled to make them more accessible. All doorways were widened to ADA standards and an 8th bedroom constructed to add an 8th resident. The furnace and roof were at the end of their life cycle and replaced. The home was brought up to current Building Codes Standards. For the Farm project, we have done a lot of fundraising. We were awarded 2-HUD grants, a $450,000 CDBG, and $273,000 HOME grant. We also received a number of other grants including $150,000 from the MJ Murdock Trust and $75,000 from the Treacy Foundation. Although the group home project is now completed, we continue to pursue additional funding so that we can complete Phase II of the project. We anticipate the total cost of the entire project will be $1,150,000+ to complete all of the work needed. Because we incurred debt with the Caldwell House, a previous project, all of the funding must be raised. We are also expanding vocational opportunities for our clients so that they can learn and develop basic job skills in a structured environment. Our trained staff offers supervision and job coaching to help them reach their maximum potential. Our clients enjoy meaningful and fulfilling work that gives them a sense of accomplishment and the opportunity to earn a paycheck.

West Mont has a proven track record of completing projects and expanding programs. When we built Ron’s Place, we did extensive fundraising. We were awarded numerous grants including a $450,000 Community Development Block Grant, $253,000 HOME grant, $150,000 from the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust, and $100,000 Treacy Foundation. These grants along with donations and grants from many others resulted in Ron's Place becoming a reality. West Mont was successful with securing all of the funding to build this facility and incurred no debt with this project. We must achieve the same results for our Farm & Gardens project. We have spent several years raising money for this project. In October 2019, we completed major renovations and updates to the Farm group home. Once again, we were able to raise all of the funds for this portion of the Farm project. Due to extensive fundraising, we were able to complete the group home renovations debt free. Our goal is to continue this fundraising success to be able to complete Phase II of the Farm project. In 2013, West Mont's floral vocational program relocated to a new larger location and West Mont Flower & Trading Company was created. This shop provides vocational training and jobs for people with disabilities. Working alongside our florists, clients learn how to make floral arrangements, help customers in the retail store, assist with deliveries, and other duties that go along with working in a retail floral shop. Clients not only are learning new skills, they are earning a paycheck. Although our shop is still operating in the 'red,' our floral business continues to grow each year and in 2020, we were voted the #1 Florist in the Best of Helena survey! West Mont's ice business also continues to grow. With expanded storage space, we are now able to offer our product to a wider range of stores. In addition to providing increased vocational opportunities for our clients, another major goal of these programs will be to help generate revenue.

We know we are making progress by seeing our planned projects become reality. Ron's Place was completed in 2016 and provides for West Mont's most medically fragile clients. Our clients will be able to stay with us even when they develop more intense medical needs. Ron's Place is located adjacent to another West Mont facility, the Caldwell House, which is a similar new residential facility that was built in 2011. Residents of both facilities have opportunities to interact, socialize, and enjoy recreational activities with their peers. A major milestone was completed after years of fundraising. Our Farm group home recently completed major renovations in October 2019. We were fortunate to be the recipient of many donations and several grants including CDBG, HOME, MJ Murdock, and Treacy Foundation. All were critical for the Farm & Gardens group home project to happen. We continue to raise funds are for Phase II of this project. West Mont Flower & Trading Company has expanded client learning opportunities. What was originally 5-clients participating in our floral business have grown to 16-clients now learning a new trade. West Mont expanded its opportunities for bagged cubed ice, by purchasing a new freezer in 2015. This has enabled us to store more bags and increase our distribution throughout the marketplace. We know we are making progress with our vocational programs as each year we have more client participation. We have seen an increase in distribution and revenue while continuing to offer meaningful and fulfilling work for our clients.

We know we are making progress when we see our planned projects become reality. We have completed 3 major construction projects over the past 9-years, the Caldwell House (2011) and Ron's Place (2016), were both built to provide nursing care for our most medically fragile clients. Most recently (October 2019), our The Farm group home major renovations. This included a new bedroom addition, all bathrooms are now ADA, kitchen remodel, new deck, new carport, new roof, new furnace, expansion of the living and family rooms, and much more. It is like a brand new facility. The renovations will allow the clients living there to be able to live out their remaining lives. In the past, this facility would not have been able to meet the needs of someone need a mobility device. It is now fully ADA accessible! We were so fortunate to be the recipient of many donations and several grants including CDBG, HOME, MJ Murdock, and Treacy Foundation. All were critical for the Farm & Gardens group home project to happen. We now are focused on raising funds are for Phase II of this project. West Mont Flower & Trading Company has expanded client learning opportunities. What was originally 5-clients participating in our floral business have grown to 16-clients now learning a new trade. We are proud to say that our flower shop was voted the #1 Florist in the Best of Helena survey! West Mont expanded its opportunities for bagged cubed ice, by purchasing a new freezer in 2015. This has enabled us to store more bags and increase our distribution throughout the marketplace. We continue to look for ways to expand our businesses to create new revenue streams. We know we are making progress with our vocational programs as each year we have more client participation. We have seen an increase in distribution and revenue while continuing to offer meaningful and fulfilling work for our clients.