Evan had his first job interview yesterday. We are working with several agencies with the goal of helping him find employment in a secular setting. By that I mean that he has only worked at our church before. While this is great & something that will certainly continue, we feel it's important for him to work in the community with people he hasn't grown up around. Our local Advocates for Independent Living office offered him a part-time job one morning a week doing office work. They definitely want to work it into a paying position with a lot more hours. Right now they will be getting to know what his talents and abilities are so they know what he is capable of doing.
I will take him there the first couple of times and then he will be taking the OATS bus. The OATS bus "provides reliable transportation for transportation disadvantaged Missourians so they can live independently in their own communities." In other words, it's like taking a regular bus, but is free and they will make sure Evan gets from Point A to Point B, without getting off somewhere he shouldn't (like the video store!!)
It's interesting how God has brought the right people into our lives at just the right time. This has happened over and over again throughout Evan's life. At the moment we are blessed to have a wonderful advocate named Nan from our local SB40 office. Senate Bill 40 Boards are local county boards for mentally retarded and developmentally disabled adults founded by Mentally Retarded Citizens of Missouri in 1968. The tax levy, approved by local voters, provides funding for residential, vocational and other related programs and services. (Just in case you wanted to know!) We received SB40 funds this year to help with our personal costs involved in Evan's hospitalizations, such as hotel bills, gas, food, etc. Each DD adult in Missouri is entitled to $2,000 per year to help cover costs that insurance & other funding does not cover. What a huge blessing this is!
Anyway, Nan saw our difficulty in getting all the different agencies involved in Evan's life to work together. Apparently she has a tremendous gift of persuasion (either that or she knows a lot of dirt on these people & has blackmailed them!) and has pulled together a meeting for us next week. At this meeting people representing 7 different agencies will all sit down at the same table & help us brainstorm ideas for this next phase of life Evan is in. This is something that Evan's case manager from the Regional Center is supposed to do (& has been asked by us numerous time to do) but has not done. We are just very grateful to God and to Nan who are both working on Evan's behalf.
In other news, I am appalled that Newsweek had Christopher Hitchins, well-known Atheist, review the book about Mother Teresa. Isn't that kind of like asking someone who hates movies to review one? Or someone who doesn't believe in love to write a love poem? Maybe no one else was available that week...
I'm glad some things seem to be moving along, and Evan has some good support.
We got Newsweek secondhand from my parents, who did not re-subscribe. I had quit reading it. It added unneeded stress to my life. Too much focus on the negative, with increasing fragmented attention to Hollywood.
Posted by: Julana | September 23, 2007 at 09:48 AM