FREED Has New Leader

New leadership for the FREED Center for Independent Living. And it should be a fairly seamless transition. Carly Pacheco takes over for Ana Acton as the Executive Director. She had been the Interim Executive Director since May. That’s after Acton had been appointed by Governor Newsom as the Deputy Director of the Independent Living and Community Access Division of the California Department of Rehabilitation. Pacheco has been with the Grass Valley FREED office for over seven years, including almost five years as Deputy Director…

click to listen to Carly Pacheco

Pacheco says the number of people they serve in five area counties, including Nevada County, grows about 10-percent a year, with around 17-hundred served last year. But she says FREED has had to adapt new strategies in recent years, including the impacts of the pandemic, which increased the isolation of some disabled residents. Pacheco says the need for more virtual services amplified the digital divide…