Financial Assistance
Financial Assistance
Let Us Help You Navigate the Many Ways to Make Your Path to Greater Independence More Affordable
Our financial assistance program uses donor dollars to provide up to 2/3 of the cost for classes and supports, and can supplement 1/3 of the resident’s income to pay rent. Donors support residents while NextWork helps them find a job and trains them to increase their independence. Supported Living services can also follow the resident after they move out, to help maintain independence over the long term.
If you are interested in becoming a valued donor, contact Amy Wadsworth at amy@nextworkacademy.org or call: 385-715-5376.
Our financial assistance program uses donor dollars to provide up to 2/3 of the cost for classes and supports, and can supplement 1/3 of the resident’s income to pay rent. If you are interested in becoming a valued donor, contact Amy Wadsworth at amy@nextworkacademy.org or call: 385-715-5376.
NextWork serves a different population than most non-profits. Our research indicated a dire need among individuals who don’t have verbal or cognitive challenges, but struggle with invisible disabilities like Level 1 autism or Aspergers.
Our participants are unique. Often, they face significant barriers to full inclusion in the community, but are told their disability is not severe enough for them to receive supports.
Because our clients are able to carry on very intelligent conversations, understand many concepts, and look like everyone else, society is usually unaware of their internal struggle. This results in challenges with qualifying for state and federal support programs, such as Social Security Disability, and Medicaid Waivers for people with disabilities. Many of our clients do qualify for Social Security, but they have applied several times and may even use legal help to get these benefits. Few of our clients qualify for Medicaid Waivers distributed by the Division of Services for People with disabilities. Those who do qualify have likely been placed on a wait list, and since this wait list is very long and these funds are distributed based on need, our clients are not likely to receive these funds without experiencing crisis.
This leaves our clients with very little, if any, state and/or federal support, but still facing daily struggles significant enough to limit their community inclusion.
An autist’s skills often don’t match skills required for most entry level jobs, and if they can’t get an entry level job, they can’t climb any corporate ladder. Failure experiences are aggravated by generalized anxiety, which makes an autist hesitant—terrified, even—to try to apply for another job. Repeated failure experiences make this worse, and the anxiety becomes the barrier that they can’t seem to break down.
Our clients receive few supports from state programs and are often denied a change to succeed in the community. This results in low employment rates for young adults in their early 20’s—a pivotal time for identifying goals and life direction. In the Drexel Institute report in 2015, findings indicated that 42% of young adults in their 20s had never worked for pay. They also have the lowest employment rate compared to their peers with other types of disabilities. Those who are employed are under-employed and work part time or in a low-wage full time job. This makes independent living a huge challenge.
Lack of supports from state and federal programs is discouraging. But it’s still worth the effort to apply. We encourage our clients to apply for Social Security and for the Division of Services for People with Disabilities because these supports do make a difference. Social Security has a work incentive program to allow people to work as many hours per week as they can handle without losing their benefits. They may lose the cash benefit if they earn enough money, but once they qualify for Social Security, it is much easier to have those supports reinstated should other life circumstances change. Individuals who qualify for some types of Social Security automatically qualify for Medicaid,
which is more valuable than the cash payment with our current health care expenses, particularly if they have a physical disability as well.
It is worth it to apply for the Division of Services for People with Disabilities as well, because even if they are waitlisted, they may need these supports as they age. It’s better for them to get on the wait list so that the option is there should they experience an increase in need or any serious crisis.
- Adobe Foundation
- Goldman Sachs
- Autism Council of Utah
- Salt Lake County Housing & Community Development
- American Express
- McCarthey Family Foundation
- Morgan Stanley Bank
- Salt Lake City Housing & Neighborhood Development
- Autism Speaks
- NeuroVersity
- Synchrony Financial
- Comenity Capital Bank
- Columbus Board of Directors
- Key Bank Foundation
- Pitney Bowes Bank
- NextWork AdHoc Committee
- May & Stanley Smith Charitable Trust
- Columbus Board of Directors
- Wells Fargo Bank
- Eric & Jaye Olafson
- Daniels Fund
- UBS Bank USA
- Vivint Smart Homes
- Versaterm, Inc.
- US Bank Foundation
- L3Harris
- Utah Association of Financial Services
- The Louis & Gladyce Foster Family Foundation
- Union Pacific Foundation
- Mark & Kimberly Fister
- John Mathison
- Zions Bank
Donor Dollars at Work
When our participants start receiving services from us, they are first directed to Vocational Rehabilitation, which funds employment services including Assessment, some Job Readiness Training, Job Development, Job Placement, and Job Coaching. The following supports and services are paid for by the participant, or by the generosity of our donors.
- Supported Living—this service includes one-on-one education on housekeeping, cooking, self-care, accessing the community, and any skills that adults need to maintain their independence. Supported Living is usually funded by the Division of Services for People with Disabilities (DSPD). Our clients typically don’t qualify for a DSPD Medicaid Waiver (such as the Home and Community Based Services Waiver), or they are on the DSPD waitlist and unlikely to be funded any time soon. As a result, Supported Living is paid for by the clients, their families, or donors. Most of our clients only need a few hours of Supported Living each week to maintain their independence. This translates to about $90/week.
- Classes in our Academy for Independent Living—using the Learn4Independence curriculum, we provide education in a variety of topics for our students. Our instructors are graduate students from the University of Utah, Department of Educational Psychology, who are overseen by Dr. John Davis. Dr. Davis and his team are paid hourly for teaching and for tweaking and developing curriculum to fit the needs of our students. NextWork staff also provide labs in the community, in the NextWork space, or in student apartments to provide one-on-one educational experiences so that the student can put into practice what is learned in the classroom. The combination of these components also assists the team in identifying strengths and challenges for our students. In addition, staff and instructors take the time to record data on each student to measure their progress and the effectiveness of the curriculum and teaching methods. Each class costs $500 per term, a term lasting 3 months. And there are 4 terms per year. Students who are unemployed are required to take 5-8 classes per term to ensure they are filling their time with educational opportunities. This also means the students with the least income have the greatest expense while they receive more intensive support. This translates to a cost of $800/month.
- Rent—our residents also pay rent for their apartments. These apartments are low income apartments, and cost 80% of the market rate for apartments in our area. Our residents have a variety of incomes, but most qualify for low income housing. Waitlists for Section 8 housing vouchers are long, and Salt Lake City is experiencing a significant shortage of low-income housing. The hope is that during the 3 year stay with NextWork, our staff can help residents increase their income and apply for any supports they may qualify for. With supports and stable income in place, staff will assist residents in finding their next apartment. While this stability is being established, our residents often need help to pay the 80% of market rate, especially if they come to us unemployed. This translates to a cost of $850/month.
- Sponsor a resident—you can sponsor a resident and provide some funding that goes directly to cover that resident’s costs. The costs depend on how many hours per week the resident works. The costs are as follows:
- Unemployed residents
- Annual cost of supports (including activities and Supported Living) $6,240.
- Annual cost of tuition (minimum number of classes) $8,000.
- Annual cost of rent $10,200
- Part-time employed residents
- Annual cost of supports (including activities and Supported Living) $4,680
- Annual cost of tuition (minimum number of classes) $6,000
- Annual cost of rent $10,200
- Full-time employed residents
- Annual cost of supports (including activities and Supported Living) $3,120
- Annual cost of tuition (minimum number of classes) $2,000
- Annual cost of rent $10,200
- Unemployed residents
CONTACT US
ADDRESS
3848 South West Temple | Suite 107
Salt Lake City, Utah, 84115
PHONE
385-715-5376