Nonprofit of the Year | Large: Empower: Abilities

Empower: abilities is an organization that is literally on the move.

The nonprofit is migrating from its headquarters at 1450 W. Cambridge St. to new digs located two miles away in the former Cadence Bank at the corner of Primrose Street and Campbell Avenue. The move requires a closure of about a week, with a reopening target of Aug. 3, according to CEO Shannon Porter.

Porter says the bank building is ideal for her organization, as its open lobby space offers a glimpse into multiple service areas, from a low-vision center to a ready stock of durable medical equipment. She notes the bank’s former drive-thru is being converted into a workshop for service and repairs to adaptive equipment. Even the vault is put into use as a space for hearing tests.

Porter says one aim of the move is to make the nonprofit more visible.

“There are still a lot of people in the community who don’t know who we are, but we’ve been here for 40 years,” she says. “They may need our services, but they don’t know we exist. We hope with increased traffic, that won’t be an issue anymore.”

Legally, Empower: abilities is the Southwest Center for Independent Living. Centers for independent living are federally mandated community-based nonprofits providing peer-driven support, advocacy and resources for people with all types of disabilities, with a majority of staff and board members composed of people with disabilities.

The goal is to help people with disabilities to live independently, according to Porter.

“The independent living philosophy is not about doing for people what they can do for themselves; it’s raising their level of independence and resilience,” she says.

The organization is about people with disabilities, but it’s also about their social supports, Porter says.

“As you help support an aging parent, that can put you into roles that are new, like helping to make health decisions and trying to figure out what’s coming,” she says. “That can put a lot of stress on people, but we can help. We can put you back into the relationship of being a daughter instead of just a caregiver.”

Porter says no single situation looks exactly like another.

“We try to evaluate – what is the need here?” she says. “How can we best fill in the gaps and offer support during transition periods.”