Second of five excerpts from testimony by Chris Brandt before the City of Bellevue Human Services Commission, March 16, 2010.

As a result of the recession, more high school students with disabilities are graduating without any adult services in place. The state legislature is likely to adopt a budget that funds employment services for only 300 of the 1300 students with disabilities in the state who will graduate in 2010 and 2011. If this trend continues, the number of young adults sitting at home with nothing productive to do will increase every year and we will have an even larger gap in services.

AtWork! continues to provide services to people who lose their county funding or have their service hours reduced due to federal waiver lids. We have a commitment to leave no one behind. In order to continue providing services when typical funding options disappear, AtWork! has focused on fundraising including holding an annual fundraising event and cultivating individual donors and on grant writing.

For the first time in its history AtWork! has launched a private pay program. We currently have 2 private pay clients and are serving 7 people who have no government funding.

We have launched a public education campaign to work with families of students in high school at a much younger age. Expecting the trend of limited and reduced funding to continue, we are being proactive in seeking support for employment services from families who are able to save and pay for their son or daughter’s services, just like most parents save for college.

Read the continuation of Chris Brandt’s testimony here at the AtWork! blog on March 25th.