After graduating high school, young adults with developmental disabilities are typically cut off from critical support services.
Though the state offers assistance for those young adults, once they turn 22, they no longer qualify for support.
The state’s Prioritization of Urgency of Need for Services list can help those planning or seeking Developmental Disability Waiver assistance through the Illinois Department of Human Services, but can take five years to be selected.
Tony Russo knew something needed to be done.
This year, Russo opened CORE, a specialized day program in Forest Park that assists adults that have aged out of school-based care.
People in the program work with therapists who assist with building vocational and social skills, learning life skills and discovering how to be independent while honing in on the four points that the organization’s acronym stands for: community, ownership, readiness and empowerment.
Currently, CORE is serving four clients but can have a ratio of five to one lead therapist or someone working towards their certification. There is also a board certified behavior analyst at the day program if additional assistance or guidance is needed.
The program is privately funded, though client families can use money that they’ve been awarded through the Medicaid Waiver’s Home Based Services program. Those funds are allocated once a person has been approved through the state’s priority list.
Russo said he wants to be a guide for those in the program.
“I never want to do for someone, I want to do with them,” Russo said. “I want to provide that minimum effective dose of assistance, such that we can maximize potential and allow people to feel good about what they’re doing because they’re the ones doing it.”
Lisa Knight helped transition her son Will Schaaf into the program in March and said she’s seen growth in his confidence, decision making skills and his emotional state.
“He’s learning different things about himself through CORE,” Knight said.
Schaaf, 34, is on the autism spectrum and was on the PUNS waiting list for 10 years before being selected, Knight said, and there weren’t a lot of support services that he could go to while on the waiting list because they couldn’t afford them.
“I didn’t know where to go, there’s not a lot of things for adults,” Knight said. “Once you hit 22, there’s big changes in the story, you can’t get any assistance without the state’s help.”
Now being a part of the CORE program, she said she’s been satisfied with the changes in her son’s life.
“He’s gained leaps and bounds in the five months since he’s been there,” Knight said.
Russo works alongside Sidhant Sehgal, director of adult programming, who said being at CORE makes him feel accomplished.
“I feel a lot happier and satisfied when I go home, especially with the kind of impact I think it makes,” Sehgal said. “I think these are little things, but I think they’re going to make a very big impact in their lives in the future.”
Those in the program also have volunteering opportunities.
They are set to help with pot washing at the Oak Park Conservatory, take care of the vegetable garden at the Cheney Mansion in Oak Park and participate in a food drive for Oak Park’s Beyond Hunger pantry.
The opening of CORE, marks an expansion of an applied behavioral analysis therapy organization Russo founded in 2013 called LifeSpeed, which is the operating partner for CORE. LifeSpeed opened its Early Learning Center in downtown Oak Park in 2020, but moved and expanded to Forest Park three years later.
Therapists work on-site with children to help foster critical language skills, reduce behavioral problems and work on developmental milestones. The larger facility allows for a trampoline, sensory swings, and a jungle gym for climbing.
Though there are tough days at work, Russo said it helps him to remember the program is part of a bigger cycle that will help others in the future.
“I enjoy human interaction, like interpersonal relationships,” Russo said. “I enjoy thinking about the difference that we’re making in other people’s lives, the humility it brings me sometimes when I’m sitting in traffic and I’m all pissed off and I’m like, wait a minute, in relation to what other people are dealing with, this is not that big of a deal.”
Knight praised the program and the improvements she’s seen in her son’s life in the few months he’s been there.
“I love the people there, they’re great,” Knight said. “Will loves them and they have his best interest at heart.”
chardy@chicagotribune.com
