History

Enable, Inc. was founded as a private, non-profit corporation in June of 1982, when there were very few community organizations that provided services for people with developmental disabilities. At that time in North Dakota, most people with disabilities lived in large state institutions such as the Grafton State School (now known as the Life Skills and Transition Center), San Haven, an institution near Dunseith which is now closed, and the State Hospital in Jamestown. At around that time, the state of North Dakota was ordered to develop services in the community for people with disabilities as a result of a federal lawsuit brought by the Arc and monitored by the federal court until 1992.

Enable’s first two Intermediate Care Facilities opened in November 1982. Enable assumed ownership of two more Intermediate Care Facilities in Mandan in October 1984, and our fifth Intermediate Care Facility was built in South Bismarck in 1985. We established a strong reputation for our residential services and for services to people who previously had either been institutionalized or had lived in the community without services.

In June of 1985, Enable added residential options by developing the Supported Living Program (SLA) to provide services to people who lived in a home or apartment setting in the community. In 1988, the Individualized Supported Living Arrangement (ISLA) program was developed to provide more flexible services for people with a variety of needs in apartment settings.

In 1988, Enable began an Adult Day Program, serving senior adults with disabilities to meet the needs of people who were not involved in vocational training. The focus of this program was and remains recreation and leisure. The Supportive Home Care and Respite Care Programs, which provide services for children and their families, were added in 1991. This program currently operates as the Family Support Program. In 1997 Enable began a small, specialized day and work activities program, the Employment Center, currently known as Enable Day Service center, which provides services to people who have a variety of complex personal and vocational needs.

Driven by a commitment to excellence, our agency has proactively grown and adapted since 1982 to ensure we are consistently meeting the evolving needs of the people we support. We embrace progress in the developmental disability system and pride ourselves on our resourcefulness and flexibility in providing truly individualized care.