Adjusting to life after high school is difficult for the every
graduate, but it was especially so for Michelle Clark. Michelle has
Down syndrome.
Hollister – Adjusting to life after high school is difficult for the every graduate, but it was especially so for Michelle Clark. Michelle has Down syndrome.
Her graduation from San Benito High School last year was one of the happiest moments in 22 years for her and her family, but after graduation came a series of decisions that tested their resolve.
Until graduation, the high school had provided Michelle with individualized educational plans and carefully scheduled activities during the school day, but after graduation her parents had to decide whether to keep her at the family’s home in Aromas or find a group home for her elsewhere.
“Up until two years before graduation I was adamant about keeping her at home. My biggest fear was that she would be molested – I wanted to keep her safe,” Michelle’s mother Karen Clark said. “But my husband wanted her to live in a community with her peers.”
Moving Michelle out of the family’s home and into a group home in Gilroy was difficult, but it turned out to be the best decision. When Michelle is not at the group home, she’s usually at Social Vocational Services, a state subsidized vocation program for people with disabilities in Hollister, learning job skills and having fun with her friends.
“She thinks she’s at college so we call SVS college,” Clark said. “She’s done very well, her speech has improved and after a few months her and I were having different conversations, we started talking about more significant things, not just about Disney movies.”
Michelle and her family are not alone. Dozens of San Benito County families face the same challenges every year, such as finding jobs, care services and homes for their disabled child, SVS Program Director Alison Noble said. SVS employs many the program’s clients, which Noble believes is important for development of occupational skills.
“You cannot believe the feeling of handing someone a paycheck who doesn’t take it for granted,” she said.
For Pamela Alvarado, the most difficult challenge was finding a job for her son Robert Wyman, 21, who suffers from Parkinson’s Disease.
“He wanted to work and make money just like everyone,” Alvarado said. “He wants to do everything that everyone else does.”
Doing that has not always been easy. Wyman could usually keep up with his peers, but as he grew older that became more difficult, Alvarado said.
When his friends began getting their driver’s licenses – something his mother knew he would never be able to do – Alvarado bought her son a small Honda motorcycle to ride around on at the family’s home. But when it came to getting a job and finding a care program after graduation, things were much more difficult.
“It was extremely stressful. I was scared about what we he was going to do and he was scared of the unknown,” Alvarado said. “School became a routine. I was comfortable with the high school and I didn’t know what he was going to do after he left.”
Like Clark, Alvarado decided to enroll Wyman at SVS and find a group home for him.
Now Wyman has a job doing janitorial work at SVS, and has friends to hang out with at his group home. But he wants more.
“He is very proud of the work he does,” Alvarado said. “But he’d like to work more and earn more.”
Work is hard to find in Hollister and San Benito County for people with disabilities, Noble said. Some SVS clients have found jobs at the YMCA, others at Walls, Windows and Floors in Hollister, but too many can’t find work at all.
“The community has not been as supportive as we’d like,” Noble said.
Working at SVS is one thing, but getting a job outside in the community is much better, Noble said.
“To go out and work in the community is huge,” she said. “Working here (at SVS) is like cleaning your own home.”
When working in the community, SVS clients get paid around minimum wage and the company they work for can apply for special tax breaks. But many companies are leery about employing a person with disabilities, said Debi Mahler, the mother of Tony Mahler, 33, an SVS client.
“People are afraid,” she said. “If people would just take the time to talk to (SVS clients), they would understand.”
Monte McDonald, owner of Walls, Windows and Floors, agreed.
“Initially I was a little concerned, however, they work quickly and quietly,” he said. “It was a great financial decision and socially it was a good thing to do. I would recommend others to just give them a chance.”
For Tony Mahler, who has moderate disabilities and is almost completely blind, working is all about the money.
“If I could make money I could record (San Jose) Shark’s games,” he said, referring to the audio tapes of sporting events that he likes to record and listen to, again and again.
Brett Rowland covers education for the Free Lance. He can be reached at 831-637-5566 ext. 330 or [email protected]
