The Project Citizen students at Bob Graham Education Center are tackling an Autism issue that may pique the interest of local and state government officials.
The seventh grade Project Citizen students, which is part of the school’s Law Studies class, discovered a problem among adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) – about 75 percent of them are unemployed.
The group interviewed a large group of people in the community about the issue and garnered feedback and identified the problem.
The kids assembled a project called “Help Wanted for ASD” in hopes the local and state governments can resolve the issue with a public policy.
The Project Citizen group will present their project at the district competition on Saturday, April 11 at Florida International University.
According to Protect Citizen student Emily Fernandez, the group commenced brainstorming problems and because her peers are closely related to someone with Autism, they researched the issue and discovered the lack of job opportunities for adults with ASD.
She said the class attended a workshop on Autism at the school for parents and realized that there are many resources for children but not for adults.
“We realized that in several years these children will have grown into adults and have little support,” Fernandez said.
After learning that 75 percent of adults with ASD are out of work, the Project Citizen group explored ways to provide more job opportunities for adults with ASD.
The group discovered the Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC), which is a federal tax credit offered to employers for hiring people who constantly find it difficult landing jobs.
The WOTC includes many groups like unemployed veterans, ex-felons and food stamp recipients but adults with ASD are excluded from the federal program.
“With that said, we want to change the existing WOTC to include adults with ASD,” Fernandez said. “This will enable them to have better job opportunities.
The group is planning to contact local government officials and state legislators as well as organizations in the community that can help bring awareness to the issue.
“I feel this is government’s responsibility because they are the ones that dictate taxes and can make a change to include this in the existing Florida Work Opportunity Tax Credit,” Fernandez said. “I think the advantages are that we will see high functioning adults with Autism being able to get more jobs,” Emily said.
BGEC Law Studies teacher Ingy Cruz said she is proud of her students for working so hard on the protect and caring for people with ASD. “They put in a lot of hours and came up with these amazing ideas,” she said.