Mission Mountain Enterprises relocates and rebrands

Mission Mountain Enterprises is relocating its headquarters, not so much moving out of Ronan, according to the organization’s CEO Lauren Oliver.

“We just wanted to give them (our clients) a yard,” she said during a recent interview.

“I wanted something that seemed more like a campus,” she added, so they bought a building with 12 acres just south of Polson, 35647 South Hills Drive. “We want to have the community come,” she enthused. “We already have a fire pit.”

MME is a private non-profit that provides services for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities and is funded by the State of Montana.

The organization is planning to create a community garden and a hiking trail, show movies on the side of a building, and possibly raise some chickens. The staff wants people digging in the dirt, growing plants and taking care of animals, Oliver said.

She adds that clients are excited because they already have a house cat living in the new building and are anxious for the moving party during the first week of May.

The new building will house administrative offices for the organization, while the land and campus will be open to all MME clients.

“It’s a restart button per se,” Oliver said of the move.

Part of the decision to relocate was fueled by structural issues with the current building, located on Main Street in Ronan. The building has been for sale since October and has interested parties, Oliver said, adding that the MME staff would like to see it become affordable housing.

MME is changing its branding also, to Mission Mountain Empowerment.

“Empowerment sums up what we do,” said Chuck Wall, who has served on the MME board for 26 years. “I think it’s the perfect word.”

“We want to get our name out there,” Oliver said. She’s surprised by all the locals who are not really sure what MME does.

A coalition of staff members who understood Oliver’s goals and visions and a supportive board of directors helped bring about the move and rebranding effort. All of the MME directors have done their best to think out of the box, Wall explained.

Oliver also introduced fresh ideas about what MME clients could do and has encouraged them to participate in new activities. For instance, beginning in January, five MME clients and five staff members headed to Blacktail Mountain Ski Area every Monday and Friday to learn to ski.

“It’s the perfect analogy of falling down and getting up,” Oliver said. “They all got off the bunny hill but two.”

With help from a contact at Silver Mountain, Oliver instituted a “vacation” for clients. MME took every client with a staff member along, with a 1:1 ratio or a 1:2 ratio, to spend time in their own condo at Silver Mountain. Clients could eat pizza, watch whatever they wanted on TV, go hiking, sleep in, and go to the water park.

“Clients said, ‘I love it here. I feel normal,’” Oliver said of the response.

Parents were excited because a condo visit was something they could do with their adult child.

Started in 1975, one of the organization’s goals was to get people out of state institutions and integrated into the community, eventually living in their own house and holding down a job, if possible, according to Brodie Moll, a retired CEO. The organization has been headquartered at the Ronan office (which was once a grocery store) for most of its nearly 50-year history.

Currently, MME serves 45 clients. With two group homes in Ronan and two in Polson, an activity center, apartments for clients who need minimal help, and services for six or seven young adults who come in daily, MME has lots going on. The organization also operates thrift stores in Polson and Ronan.