My Son's Future

My current position as a Job Coach with a southern California company, Ability Counts, has left me once again wondering about my son's future. A fifteen year old with Autism, Jason is fun, loving, communicative (in his own way) and definitely smart. The journey with him so far has been an adventure with lessons and epiphanies that I would never have experienced without him. In five years or so the family and I will be faced with the new task of helping him decide what he wants to do in his adult life.

I am grateful for the experience I've gained working for over 30 years with persons with disabilities in various capacities. From toddlers to adults I have had the privilege of teaching, coaching and playing with many individuals and families with various disabilities. At the YMCA and with my own company Tumble City I have had the pleasure of honing skills in teaching through sensory integration from a physical fitness, acrobatic approach. With Partnerships With Industry I applied all that I learned to assisting adults with developmental disabilities in finding, applying for and training in jobs within the community.

It is my hope that society will understand how necessary supported employment and recreational services or day programs are for the differently-abled population. As the economy, especially in California, begins to slowly get back to some sense of normality I can only hope that we will remember the funding necessary to keep services in place for this fragile population. remember, pay now or pay later...for if we do not assist these individuals in living up to their full potential at an early age we will be handing off the responsibility of much more expensive care to our children and grandchildren in the future.

My son has a great support system with our family, and he will be encouraged to develop as far as his beautiful brain allows him to. But there are those individuals who do not have such a support system and those are the ones that need the funding and services most. As a society that promotes freedom and liberty, let us not forget to lend a hand to the most needy.