By Associated Press - Tuesday, August 11, 2020

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - A day program that consistently served more than 100 people with disabilities in Rhode Island will close in September because of financial losses, the organization said.

Resources for Human Development, a nonprofit based in Philadelphia, will close its Rhode Island location because reimbursement rates from federal agencies were not sufficient and new burdens caused by the coronavirus pandemic have crippled their finances, the Providence Journal reported.

“In the three fiscal years preceding the COVID pandemic, RHD lost a total of over $750,000; clearly this number has grown significantly throughout this pandemic and the organization cannot afford to sustain this level of financial loss,” Manay Gunter, an employee of the organization wrote in a statement.

Resources for Human Development opened its Rhode Island office in 2004 and ran an arts-based day program for people with a range of intellectual and developmental disabilities.

The organization took the artwork of its participants to art fairs in the region and in 2015, hosted the first Rhode Island Outsider Art Fair as a part of a partnership, the newspaper reported.

Resources for Human Development will work with the state Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals to find its participants other service providers, a spokesperson for the department told the newspaper.

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