Vela Canada “assists people with disabilities to take greater control of their lives; living the life they choose by forming a Microboard or accessing Individualized Funding.”
The transition from being an autistic youth to an autistic adult at age 19 in BC is daunting.
There is a lot to do—a lot of paperwork, negotiating, and meetings.
You have to learn all new acronyms, procedures, and reporting systems.
We were assigned a “Navigator” through the Ministry of Children and Families as our representative of the “Youth” program. We were also assigned a representative from Community Living BC (CLBC)—the governing and funding agency that supports “Adults”. We would meet regularly to walk through the steps. We are very grateful for their guidance.
CLBC offered us 18 hours a week which we could use to drop Luke off at a local agency of our choosing (three 6-hour days).
But I was never keen on dropping Luke off anywhere.
I wasn’t sure what to do.
I did some research, and learned about Vela Canada.
Vela liaises between parents and CLBC.
Yvonne was our Vela person.
She stepped in, and took over.
She spoke “CLBC-ese”.
She recommended IF. (Not the new Ryan Reynold’s movie, lol).
Individualized Funding (IF) allows parents/caregivers/adults with diverse abilities to manage their own funding, hire their own support people, and make decisions about the best ways for inclusion in community.
Within hours after our first Zoom meeting, she created an Excel budget for Luke for Individualized Funding (IF), and we presented it to CLBC. It was just the way CLBC wanted to see a budget, something I would never have done, or figured out on my own.
And then we waited, and waited, and waited for a decision.
Eventually we succeeded in securing the 18 hours as IF!
Impossible without Yvonne!
Impossible without VELA!
We spent the next few months completing the mountains of paperwork to make this happen (again, with Yvonne’s help).
And here we are, just over a year later.
Luke enjoys full control over how he spends his days / hours and with whom. We’ve hired a few great guys who take Luke where he wants to go. It’s incredibly empowering for Luke. Here is an video that was taken in March 2024 while we were in Calgary, and was just released to us. Luke has come so far with Spelling since then, but I love looking back and watching him respond to the interview questions using the letterboard.
Vela also wrote a story about Luke on their website, which can be viewed here.
Vela—and Yvonne—are amazing.
Because of them, Luke gets to live his best life.
More families transitioning from youth to adult should use this FREE service!!
Contact them today...