Life Essentials

Life Essentials is a nonprofit agency serving Dayton and Montgomery County. The programs provided serve our community's frail and forgotten residents living in isolation or those who cannot advocate for themselves. These programs are uniquely specialized and provide specific results that impact our community as a whole. In 1987 the original program... , CHUMS and Choices, was founded with a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health. In 1994, local hospitals and the legal community approached the Chums program to see if they would be interested in starting a volunteer Guardianship Program. Following this successful union, the Board changed the name of the organization to Life Essentials in 1996. Volunteer Caregivers also began in 1995 and was funded with a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. In 1998, the Life Essentials agency and Volunteer Caregivers agency merged offering these three primary programs. In June 2013, in an effort to focus on core programs, Life Essentials discontinued the Volunteer Caregivers Program. Clients were referred to United Way's HelpLink 2-1-1 for assistance. Since those early beginnings Life Essentials has continued to offer the Chums program, the Volunteer Caregivers program and the Guardianship program. In 2003, Chums II, (now called Motivate to Integrate) was formed. 2012 will mark the 25th year of providing services to our community's most vulnerable residents. Please click on any of the links above to learn more about our specific programs, or call us at (937) 586-0545.Read More