LaunchPad: Getting Ready for Adult Years

LaunchPad is a one-of-a-kind program.  LaunchPad is for parents ready to begin to understand what development during the first ten years of special education will mean for capacities likely to develop in the next 10 years of your child’s life.  We know starting to plan for the long-term future is scary, but as one father told us “Tell me whether I need to save for a Special Needs Trust or for College”.  The aims of LaunchPad are to help you envision likely day-to-day capacity for social, vocational, and financial independence for your child. When he or she reaches adulthood.   This usually involves talking to you, talking to your child, and carrying out testing that helps us look into future talents as well as handicaps

Another parent asked how to  help his son after “the day the short yellow school bus stopped coming to their house”.  Resources, training, and  federal guarantees to anything  ‘free and appropriate’ largely end when public schooling does.  How do parents support their young adult in advocating for needed resources:  What kind of job training will be a fit?  Community college?  Independent living possibilities?  We help parents envision likely and successful paths to as much independence as possible.  Our motto:  ‘Start low, go slow, but go as far as you can go.’