Mission:to provide safe, caring and exceptional adult day care and health rehabilitation services. These services will offer meaningful, individually tailored programs and care designed to enhance the dignity, independence, joy and quality of life of older persons, younger adults with disabilities, provide support and respite for their families and caregivers and serve as an informational resource for our communitiesvision:to provide care options for individuals and families facing the challenges of aging and or disability

Human Services , Residential Care & Adult Day Programs

Services: building we continue to raise funds to address the lower level of the building to create a larger activity area for our participants and allow the entire building to be utilized in the event of a local emergency. The dr. Richard a. Sleeman center is pleased to be designated as a red cross shelter for bennington county adult day service personnelhaving the right staff is critical to the success of our adult day program. Families entrust the care of their loved ones to bennington project independence every day. Our staff tend to become an extension of family for many of our participants and their family caregivers. Bpi's staff includes and executive director who is qualified as an activity consultant; certified and masters level expressive arts therapist; an administrative coordinator who is also our webmaster, a membership coordinator, a licensed marriage and family counselor and certified art therapist; an activity coordinator who is a certified activity director and personal trainer; activity assistants, licensed nursing assistants, licensed practical nurses, a registered nurse, van drivers, a nutrition manager and cook, a part-time facilities manager, a part-time housekeeper and part-time development specialist. Our staff is supplemented by assistance from a consulting bookkeeper, a certified public accountant, a music therapist and a yoga therapist. In 2012-2013, bpi had over 319 volunteers who donated countless hours of service to our participants and our program. Bpi takes pride in its excellent staff-to-participant ratio and the personalization of all aspects of care and service. With our new, expanded adult day care and day health rehabilitation facility, bpi's staffing needs have also increased. This has created more jobs for the local economy. We knew that with the facility expansion our personnel budget would need to increase also. Bpi has historically had an excellent history of long term staff retention. Multiple staff members have been with bpi 20 years or more. Staff are not just hired, they are added to our "bpi family" it generally takes about a year to truly learn the intricacies of the job and the philosophic operation of our organization. All of our staff members are extremely caring, dedicated professionals who are cross trained to provide the utmost in flexibility and service provision for our participants and their families. With the new building as a substantial resource and with its professional and compassionate staff, bennington project independence continues its proud tradition of helping families share the care. health services: kitchensin designing our new adult day center, the provision of fresh, high quality meals for our participants was paramount. Many of our participants are no longer able to prepare their own meals and have nutritional issues that can affect their health. The food we serve for lunch at bpi may be the only well-balanced meal some of our participants have each day. Bpi has a full-featured, modern commercial kitchen. We received design recommendations from several accomplished local chefs and restauranteurs. The result is an efficient and modern kitchen capable of feeding not only our participants but of serving several hundreds of people should our facility ever need to be used as an emergency shelter for our community. Bpi has an amazing nutrition manager who understands the unique dietary needs of older persons and younger adults with disabilities. She is committed to making well balanced, nutritious, home-cooked meals and healthy snacks. She works closely with our activity program to ensure that our meals dovetail with the activity themes of the day. They complement each other beautifully and provide a flavorful addition. Besides the full commercial kitchen, bpi included a full residential-style kitchen that is completely handicapped accessible. The counters and sink can accommodate participants in wheelchairs. An induction cooktop was included to ensure