Sept 2024 Newsletter: What Happens After 21? We’re Creating Solutions.
The First Big Step Off “The Cliff”
Children with intellectual or developmental disabilities (IDD) inexorably become adults with IDD.
After age 21, adults with IDD age out of the school system and lose their free education and school-based services, also known as “falling off the cliff.”
As a father of two significantly developmentally disabled adult daughters, I don’t think that should be the end of learning, growing, and living their best lives possible, and I’m pretty sure they would agree. Frankly, I think that’s when their (and our) best years begin.
So LTO Ventures is pleased to announce plans for our Life Academy and Enrichment Clubs that will provide educational, vocational, recreational, and social engagement options for adults with IDD in Boerne and the surrounding seven-county region. Our goal will be to create opportunities, experiences, and outcomes similar to what individuals without disabilities enjoy that are person-centered, accessible, and, well, fun! The plan is to begin offering the first of these options in Summer 2025. [click here for details]
The world has changed in the last couple of generations for adults with IDD. Medical and therapeutic advances today enable adults with IDD to live to full life expectancy so after 21 most have another good 50 or more years of living to do. We also know that 80 percent of the cost of supporting an adult with IDD occurs after 18, and more than 50,000 children with autism reach adulthood every year. The world also is becoming more accepting of individuals who may be different, but not less.
Boerne is a very supportive community for adults with IDD. Our Special Olympics delegation offers 11 sports and was Grand Marshall of Boerne’s Christmas parade last year. Local churches hold bingo nights and dances. Day programs like Helping Hands and SA Life Academy provide social and learning opportunities, but we need more to meet the growing demand.
Our Life Academy and Enrichment Clubs will offer a robust calendar of programs and outings that complement these existing offerings and emphasize lifelong learning, health and wellbeing, and friendships while eliminating isolation and loneliness.
There’s quite a bit of news for September! Click here to read the rest of the newsletter.
