WKSU Stories

Twinsburg-Based Hattie Larlham Says It's Looking Toward a Merger

Ideastream Public Media | By Kabir Bhatia

Published June 15, 2017 at 9:02 PM EDT

The 56-year-old Hattie Larlham organization, based in Twinsburg, is closing two of its food service operations this summer, although officials say they plan to find someone who may want to take over the food hubs.

A local non-profit that helps care for about 18-hundred people in Ohio with developmental disabilities says it can no longer operate on its own.

Twinsburg-based Hattie Larlham Foundation plans to look for a partner with which to merge.

As part of a cost-cutting campaign, the foundation is closing its farm-to-table work program -- as well as Hattie’s Café -- in Akron, which Chief Development Officer Catherine Schwartz says will affect about two percent of the people in their program.

“We’re working with each person individually to see if they’re interested in coming to one of our other programs, if there’s space. And some of these people are ready for community employment; and that’s really the whole goal of our training program.”

Schwartz says the foundation will still continue its other programs.

“We provide job-training services to our Doggie Day Cares, which will continue. We provide in-home services and foster care services to people who live in their own homes. A day program called Constant Companions to individuals who don’t live in group homes.”

Schwartz says one reason for the budget shortfalls is new government mandates that require residents to be placed in community housing, instead of larger group homes settings such as Hattie Larlham’s facility in Mantua. CEO Wendy Pardee plans to step down on July 31, at which time the board will announce an interim head.