Full Time Caregiver for College Campus Living

This is Jake Branan. He has a full ride to UGA starting this Fall (August 19th!) because he's... well, brilliant and perfectly cognitive mentally. He is physically disabled and in a wheelchair, with a nonfunctioning right arm and hand, and cannot do many things for himself, such as some self-care, cooking, laundry, putting on shoes and socks, bathing independently, accessing items, etc. He requires full-time help to be independent.

Three years ago when he was in 9th grade, ago, we applied for a state program called the NOW Comp Waiver, which provides annual funding for individuals with disabilities to be able to live independently. We applied three years ago because we were told the waiting list is about two years.

Despite our best efforts, we learned it could be up to 8 or 9 years, as funding for these programs is sparse and there's a desperate need for them. With the intervention of our district senator, we were finally able to start moving on it, and after seven months, are still not where we need to be to have these funds in place for his move in date of August 13th to his campus apartment.

We are moving forward this Saturday and moving him into his new life despite not having this state funding and have hired a great assistant to live with him, whom we are scrambling to cover financially for a couple of months at least, because we don't want to deny him the opportunity to spread his somewhat broken wings and experience the world on his own. We have no idea when the funding will come through, as we are still getting requirements that need to be taken care of almost daily and can't seem to get past the red tape. We are trying to cover at least three months of expenses, optimistically holding out hope that we will get final approvals and funding by year end.

Any assistance you can provide would be so greatly appreciated. Jake is so excited to start his new life, and we just can't imagine, as parents, denying him that basic right. THANK YOU.

Also, 11 Alive News here in Atlanta just aired an interview we did with Kaitlyn Ross about the situation, The link is:

https://www.11alive.com/article/news/community/voices-for-equality/uga-bound-freshman-disability-accommodations/85-3e4d838c-4b50-46c0-8ac4-f2d86057c3d4?fbclid=IwAR0HugR60kuu2ma_0poesrTt94UwcbbbWgmVYZD_VDLSCzOo-Rosy7Z3nuM