Parents, educators, business leaders and other stakeholders gather in Naples Saturday, September 15th for the first “Creating a Future for Adults with Autism” Conference. The impetuous behind the conference is one mother’s mission to build a future for her own child.
The 1990s brought an explosion in the number of children being diagnosed with autism. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of school aged children with autism in the U.S. increased more than 800 percent between 1993 and 2003. And now as these young adults enter their 20s, families are finding a lack of supportive housing for them to move into. Those families include Naples resident, Debby Lasek and her 20-year-old son, Walter.
“A few years ago I realized Walter would be coming to the age of adulthood and I was taking a look at my life and wondering what’s going to happen to him in the future,” said Lasek. As I get older and if something did happen to me, I really didn’t know what would happen to him.”
Walter has autism which impacts his speech and cognitive development. Lasek met with a representative of the state agency for persons with disabilities to begin laying a foundation for Walter’s future.
“They told me there was about an eight year wait for housing and that when funding does become available, then he could be put on the list,” said Lasek. So basically, there was an eight year wait, but there was no real waiting list because there was no funding at the time.”
That’s when Lasek says she realized that she and other parents needed to take action themselves. Along with a core group of other families, Lasek organized Saturday’s “Creating a Future for Adults with Autism” Conference to connect with others facing the same uncertain future for their children.
David Glenn will be a speaker at the conference as executive director of the Naples-based Foundation for the Developmentally Disabled; a service and advocacy non-profit aimed at helping individuals and families in Lee and Collier Counties. “Many families have found themselves in the same situation and many of them feel alone and they don’t know where to turn,” said Glenn. “And that’s why we do need to continue to have this outreach to the community and to families to make sure everybody is included in the conversation and can help us expand programs and services over time.”
The Foundation for the Developmentally Disabled is in the process of acquiring land from Collier County for its first affordable housing option for adults with disabilities. He says overall, progress is being made, but there’s a long way to go. According to the Coleman Institute for Cognitive Disabilities’ 2011 state ranking, Florida came in 49th when it comes to spending on services for those with developmental disabilities relative to the average residents’ personal income.
Jack Kosik is director of the non-profit developmental disabilities service provider Noah’s Ark of Central Florida in Lakeland and he’ll also be speaking at the conference. “Currently in Florida, there are 22 thousand people with developmental disabilities on the waiting list for services,” said Kosik. “They’re estimating about 40% of them or about 9,000 people need housing so the need is huge. And the Department of Housing and Urban Development cites our population as the worst case scenario in the nation. And families are going to have to do something.”
Noah’s Ark of Central Florida was inspired by the same need for services behind Saturday’s conference in Naples. Kosik himself is the father of an adult daughter with a developmental disability. “I looked at some group homes that were being available for her and I thought to myself ‘Oh, my God, my daughter can’t live there,’” said Kosik. “Because we didn’t want to just have a place to live. We wanted activities so she could have some fun, friends and family involved. We wanted to have some sort of meaningful daytime activity with a job or volunteer opportunities, a decent place to live and a spiritual component. We couldn’t find an organization so we started Noah’s Ark.” Noah’s Ark is currently in the process of expanding housing options with the creation of a new sustainable housing community called Noah’s Landing that will meet the needs of up to 200 developmentally disabled residents.
The conference is open to anyone interested in joining the dialogue and working together to expand housing options and other services for developmentally disabled adults in Southwest Florida. “The conference doesn’t stop here,” said Lasek. “This is where everything gets started. And our plans are ‘let’s take it from there.’ I want to get everyone together. I know a lot of people have a lot of great ideas.”
The first annual Creating a Future for Adults with Autism Conference takes place this Saturday September 15th at St. John the Evangelist Church in North Naples from 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. For more information or to sign up visit http://www.kneads.org/donation.html.
