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Thankful for program to help young adults with learning disabilities A 2010 file photo of Anne Marie Fantin and her son Eric. (Windsor Star files) http://blogs.windsorstar.com/2013/11/21/thankful-for-program-to-help-young-adults-with-learning-disabilities/ My name is Anne Marie Fantin. My son Eric is 21 years old. He has been out of high school for three years and has an intellectual disability. When Eric graduated, we talked about him attending a post-secondary school; his interest was horticulture. We could not find a program or college that could accommodate his need for an educational assistant until we came across a program at Lambton college called C.I.C.E, Community Integration through Co-operative Education. After three years of emails, phone calls and discussions with faculty at St. Clair College and the Ministry of Colleges and Universities, I am pleased to say the program will start in September 2014. Unfortunately, there is limited enrolment. The ratio of learning facilitator to student is higher than I would like. I’m reaching out to the community and asking any student, parent, teacher who is interested in the program to write or call the Ministry of Colleges and Universities, St. Clair College and your MP and encourage them to provide more funding to the program to increase enrolment numbers and provide an adequate number of learning facilitator to student ratio. I see a bright future for our kids. I hear parents having discussions with their children about post-secondary education at an earlier age. With education comes employment. It’s not an easy road for our kids when it comes to employment. There is hope. With your help we can make dreams come true. I had the pleasure of meeting a young man in his 20s. We spoke about this program. With a great deal of enthusiasm, he applied to Lambton College with the help of his service provider and was put on a waiting list. He wanted to be a cook through C.I.C.E. Unfortunately, he died a few years ago, his dreams never came true. So in his memory, a bursary will be available to a student applying to the program from his service provider. Please, email, call or write and help make dreams come true. For whatever reason, as a parent with a child with a disability, nothing comes easy. Please continue to work hard on developing a higher level of learning and with that will come employment and with that comes independence. I thank the college and their staff for adopting this program. They will be one of only 10 other colleges in Ontario with this program. You can view the program details through Humber College where the program originated. I guess what I’m hoping to pass along is “Don’t give up, good things come from hard work and our kids deserve it.” I would also like to thank my family, friends and people in the community for supporting Eric and I through this process. A special thanks to Lisa Raffoul for believing in us and to the service provider for the bursary in honour of the young man who passed. ANNE MARIE FANTIN, Windsor