Families for Families is a Program-Approved Service Agency serving people with intellectual and developmental disabilities across Colorado. We support clients on the DD (comprehensive) and Supported Living Services waivers, in host homes and in family homes.

We started the way a lot of good things do — as one extended family wanting to help another. That origin still shapes how we work. We are small on purpose. When you call, a person who knows your name answers.

We serve the whole family, not just the person named on the service plan. The family is the circle of care around our clients, and it is the part of the system most often expected to give endlessly and receive nothing.

To make sure every person we serve has a circle of care that is deep, resilient, and unbroken — by supporting not only the client, but every person who cares for them.

A Colorado where families caring for a loved one with a disability are not doing it alone, worn down, or fighting the system for what their family member is owed. Where the person receiving support runs their own life. And where the people who care for them are cared for in return.

Care runs in a chain, and every link has to be strong. A client cannot be fully supported if the people supporting them are running on empty. So we work on the whole chain, not just one link.

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Nurture the nurturer. Caregivers give love, patience, encouragement, and time, most of it invisible and none of it on a billing code. Our job includes making sure some of that comes back the other way.

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The person decides. Everything we do is aimed at carrying out the choices of the people we serve — not choices made for them, however well-intentioned.

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We pick up where case management leaves off. Case managers are stretched across enormous caseloads. We stay in the details: that services are actually optimized, that the SIS level is right, that nothing quietly falls through.

We specialize in the family caregiver model. Most agencies treat family caregiving as one option among several. It is our focus. We know how these arrangements actually work — the strain, the isolation, the specific ways they break down — because we built the agency around them.

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We speak the system's language on your behalf. Waiver rules, SIS levels, service plans, prior authorizations, medical providers who talk past you. You should not have to become an expert in all of it to get your family member what they need. We do that translation, and we do it in your corner.

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We plan for the caregiver, not just the client. We identify natural supports across the family and build a caregiver support plan that looks at what's needed now and what's coming. Aging parents. A sibling heading to college. A caregiver's own health. These are predictable, and planning for them beats reacting to them.

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We look for practical relief, not just services. Better medication management. Home adaptive equipment. Whatever removes friction from a caregiver's day. If a $40 device saves someone twenty minutes every morning, that matters more than another meeting.

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Caregiver Days Out. Twelve paid days off per year. If they go unused, they're paid out — but we would much rather you took the break.

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Family Days Out. A family outing on us every quarter. Waterpark, museum, botanic gardens. Siblings included, because they sacrifice too and it usually goes unremarked.

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We're small, and we intend to stay reachable. You will not be routed through a phone tree to explain your situation to someone new.

• Individual Residential Services and Supports (IRSS) — 24/7 support, in a host home or in the family home

• Supported Community Connections — one-on-one, community-based day support built around the person's own plan and goals

• Non-Medical Transportation — access to waiver services, activities, and community resources

Every family does this differently. The routines, the language, the traditions, the things that set someone off and the things that settle them — none of that is in a service plan, and all of it matters. So we don't start with a menu. We start with your family, and we build support around how you already live. If there's something that would help, ask. Not just the things on our service list — anything. The worst outcome is a family struggling with something we could have handled, because they assumed it wasn't our job or didn't want to be a bother.

We'll say yes when we can. A lot of what people hesitate to ask for turns out to be easy on our end.

We'll be honest when we can't, and quickly. Some things are outside what our waiver services cover, or outside what an agency is allowed to do. When that's the case, we will tell you plainly, tell you why, and tell you who can help instead. What we won't do is go quiet and let a request die without an answer.

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We'll look for another way. If we can't do exactly what was asked, there is often something nearby that solves the same problem. A referral, a different service, a one-time arrangement, a phone call to somebody on your behalf.

We'll tell you where it stands. Every request gets acknowledged, gets an owner, and gets an answer.

Real examples, so you know the range:

• Help understanding a letter from the county, or a service plan you didn't follow

• Someone to call a doctor's office, a pharmacy, or an insurer with you or for you

• Help getting paperwork together before a redetermination

• A different visit schedule that works with your job

• Communication in a specific way — text instead of email, calls after 6, another language, written summaries instead of verbal

• Help finding out whether a piece of adaptive equipment can be covered

• Support figuring out whether the SIS level actually reflects your family member

• Someone to attend a meeting with you so you're not the only one in the room

• Advice on how to talk to a sibling about what's happening

• A break, when you cannot say out loud that you need one

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If yours isn't on this list, that isn't a reason not to ask. Most of what we do started as a request nobody expected.

If a request would limit something the person we serve is entitled to — their privacy, their schedule, their food, their visitors, their money, their choices — we can't simply agree to it, however sensible the reason. That's not us being difficult. Rights can be limited when there's a genuine, specific need, but it has to go through the person's plan, with the support team, with review.

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If you're a caregiver and something in your home falls into this category, please tell us. It is almost always something that started as an attempt to keep someone safe. We would much rather help you do it the right way than find out about it later.

The Caregiver Portal is the fastest way to reach us for anything that isn't urgent.

For anything urgent — a safety concern, an injury, a crisis — call us. Do not use the portal. Call [PHONE]. If someone is in danger, call 911.

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How to submit

1. Log in to the Caregiver Portal at [PORTAL LINK]. If you can't get in, call us and we'll sort it out — don't let a password stop you from telling us something.

2. Go to [REQUEST SECTION].

3. Choose the type of request [or: describe it in your own words — there's no wrong category].

4. Tell us what you need. Plain language is fine. You don't need the right terminology and you don't need to justify the request. If it helps to explain the background, do — context often changes what we can offer.

5. Tell us how urgent it is and, if there's a deadline, what it is.

6. Attach anything relevant — a letter you received, a form, a photo of a piece of equipment.

7. Submit. You'll get a confirmation [DESCRIBE: reference number, email, on-screen message].

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What happens next

• We acknowledge every request within 3 business days.

• One person is assigned to it, and you'll know who.

• If we need more information, we'll ask.

• You'll get a clear answer: yes, no, or here's another way. If it's no, you'll get the reason.

• If it's going to take a while, we'll tell you that too, and check back in.

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You can always call instead. The portal is there because it's convenient, not because we'd rather not hear from you. If writing it down is hard, or you'd rather explain it out loud, call [PHONE].

Caregiving is not only the hands-on care. It's the paperwork, the phone calls, the appointments, the forms, the endless small administrative weight nobody counts as work. We can take some of that.

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Paperwork and documentation. Forms, applications, renewal packets, letters that make no sense. Bring them to us. We can explain them, help you complete them, or handle correspondence on your behalf where we're permitted to.

Deadlines. If keeping track of what's due when is a burden, tell us. Missed redeterminations and lapsed authorizations are among the most damaging and most preventable things that happen to families, and we would rather carry that tracking than watch it slip.

Talking to other providers. Doctors, specialists, pharmacies, day programs, schools, the county. We can join the call, make it for you, or follow up afterward so you're not relaying information between people who should be talking to each other.

Meetings. If you'd rather not walk into a service plan meeting alone, you don't have to.

Tools and equipment. If something would make the daily routine easier — a medication system, an adaptive device, a change to the home — tell us. We can assess it and look at whether it can be covered.

Time. Caregiver Days Out are yours. Twelve a year. You do not need to justify taking them, and you do not need to be at breaking point first.

Anything else. Really. However your family works, there is probably something we could take off your plate. Just say what it is.

Tell us. Directly, and without worrying about the consequences. Nobody loses services, loses their placement, or gets treated differently for raising a concern or making a complaint. If something we did wasn't right, we would rather hear it from you than not hear it at all. You can also raise anything at any time with your case manager or your case management agency.