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News 12 Staff

97spotlightnj2_2024-09-07-09-51-13

Aaron Dolman is the founder of the Nexus Transitions Club at Rutgers. We also have Francis De Chico, who is a Nexus member and Leah de Chico. Her mom, let's talk about the challenges that you run into when resources run out from the state and other sources. Tell us about that. Well, the first problem is you have to know what resources are out there and even that can be a big problem for families, they're left finding resources in a variety of websites and it could be really challenging to find. The other problem is funding. In addition to the paperwork, sometimes there just isn't the money out there to support these kinds of transition programs. What funds your transition program right now? Uh Nexus is funded completely through Rutgers and through the support of Rutgers University. But we know that that funding is always uh at risk. And so we're trying to find other sources, other grants that can support our program. And were you all running into that same problem? I think one of the biggest issues when it comes to getting resources as someone on the spectrum is the issues with DDD, not some people have DDD. Some people don't. And the issue is there's a lot more things that you can get through DDD. You can't when you don't have it. And some people unfortunately do not make the cut for DVD. It's for the most ridiculous reasons sometimes, which is definitely why the whole DVD program really needs to be, like, looked into and fixed up a little more because there are people who could really use the services that aren't getting it just because of one or two minor little details. For those of us who don't know what is DDDDDD is. I forgot the exact, um, department of developmental disabilities, disabilities. I, I went to get, um, it was, it was like a little interview type of thing or whatever. You had to be a value by this because she has a high IQ, they meet her IQ and, um, because I get, I forgot exactly the reason why I got rejected. I think it was because I could count money because she can count money and because they felt she could do her daily hygiene on her own every day. So that's why yet I've talked to parents that their, their kids have been less challenged and they got approved. So, I don't know, something just doesn't seem right. And a lot of programming nowadays are funded through DVD or you have to have private pay a lot of money which isn't fair for people who don't have the money.

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97spotlightnj3_2024-09-07-12-47-30

We are talking about Nexus Transitions Club at Rutgers. Aaron Dolman is the founder, Francis De Chico is a Nexus member. Leah De Chico is her mom and Leah, let's go back to you. We were talking about DDD. Tell everybody what that is and what are some of the issues that you all are running into, in dealing with nonprofits and other organizations and getting the resources you need? Ok. The problem with DDD is they make it that before a child is 21 or before your child is 21 that they have to do this long process. They have to apply for some DDD stands for the Department of Developmental Disabilities. And that's an organization that deals with benefits for 21 and above that have intellectual and I believe neurological disabilities, including, you know, somebody who, who's on the spectrum. So, um the problem is they can consider that when they're 21 they're entitled and they have to prove they're disabled, which I think is ridiculous. Now, another problem is we had to do the long application. If you're lucky enough to go through, perform care, you can do the short application. We couldn't do the short application because performed care messed up. I got um, benefits care. There's, there's two different, um, bene kinds of benefits to perform care. There's mental health and then there's also with intellectual neurological disability. Well, when I got the ones for mental health for her, they didn't tell me that there's se se and they knew she was on the spectrum. That was in the, in the records. Nobody referred us to apply for the, the separate benefits for her for the spectrum. So when, um she was almost 21 I tried to, to get her respite care um like she can go away a weekend and you know, do nice things. And the problem is, is they um perform care said, oh, because she's aging out and she don't have that be said she has performed care. We, oh, well, no, it's just, that's how I found out it's a separate for autism. So, um because of that, we had to do the long application instead of short application and then you have to go through this thing. It's called the NJ cat. Now, the problem with the NJ cat is they, you're, you, you're supposed to be there for hours, they're supposed to ask you a whole line of questions. And um when I took her to do the NJ cat, it was like 20 minutes, half hour was done. That to me is suspicious and then they made her get evaluated by a psychologist. So she was just because she had a high IQ. And so if you don't get approved and even if you do get approved, there's a budget, there's tiers. So even if she got approved there, the budget might not cover what she needs.

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98spotlightnj4_2024-09-08-08-50-55

We are with Aaron Dolman who is the founder of the Nexus Transitions Club at Rutgers. Francis De Chico is a Nexus member and Leah De Chico is her mom. Let's talk about what this program offers and how many people you help. So we can help up to 25 autistic adults. And this program offers an opportunity for autistic adults in our community to join us, Rutgers, occupational therapy, doctorate students to learn more skills, independent skills. We have a kitchen, we have a living room which has a bed, a washer um and a variety of other spaces classrooms that we can use to provide opportunities to, to learn these skills with hands on practice. We do things in like in our kitchen like make pasta uh Frances can tell you about her amazing uh pasta sauce that she made. When, when we made the pasta, some were working on the noodles. I, I was mostly working on the sauce. I did have a little bit of help mostly with like chopping things up. But I I feel bad for taking most of the credit but it is the truth. I did do most good own it and it was, it was really great sauce. I brought some home. That's what I love about. It is because that's what happens in Texas. You have people taking ownership of what they do, whether it's making tea or coffee, making pizza or pasta dough and they can bring that to other environments wherever they're going. So it's a real opportunity for Francis and others to shine and leah, it sounds like your daughter and others are finding who they are and what they bring to the table. I have to admit that before this, before this program, I have, I have, I don't remember seeing her take so much charge until she got into this program. And that's, that's a real big plus for her, that's what I'm really proud of her. I'm really impressed. It's a big deal. Rutgers grad students also help out, tell us about that. That's right. We wanted to create an opportunity for our community members to learn, but we wanted them to learn alongside our students. And so this is an opportunity for our students to get direct involvement, working with the autistic population and to learn about the best practices that they should be doing with this population. So it's an opportunity for them to learn, to work with our community and to really serve our university's mission of serving this community.

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98spotlightnj5_2024-09-08-12-34-57

My guests are Aaron Dolman. He is the founder of the Nexus Transitions Club at Rutgers. We also have Frances De Chico who was a Nexus member. And Leah De Chico is her mom. We were talking about the wonderful things you get to do here at Nexus. Go ahead. Well, again, one of the main things that we do is cooking, which is a very important skill in life because it's better. It's, it's, um, it's healthier and it's better to cook a lot more meals at home than they get fast food and stuff. And we've done all sorts of recipes from homemade burgers and fries to pasta, to pizza. We tend to try different recipes and we also made smoothies. And another thing is that we did resume stuff like we went over about what we should put in a resume and we were like, working individually with, there was a, what's the room called that we go in for the resume? It's one of our classrooms. It's just one of the classrooms and has a big projector that the laptop, not laptop, the computer is connected to. And I would go on the computer to do my resume and there were a couple of others there who helped me out with doing the resume because they could see it up there on the projector. That was another thing. We also did practice interviews, which are also really important. And we did other stuff like cleaning up the AD L lab, which is the, the space that's like a living room and like a bedroom all sort of mashed together. And, um, we also learned how to do laundry. Well, I already know how to do laundry but I have others. I've been knowing how to do laundry, but I learned how to iron. I was gonna say, I wanna highlight what you just mentioned, which is that you were helping others learn how to do laundry. And I remember you helping one of our members to design his resume and you were giving him suggestions about what to say and maybe you should word it this way versus that way. I think, I mean, you've really contributed to our next. That's another big part of the program is helping each other out with things. It's very good teamwork.

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98spotlightnj6_2024-09-08-12-33-38

Nexus Transitions Club is at Rutgers University. Aaron Dolman is the founder. He's also here with Frances de Chico, who was a Nexus member. And Leah de Chico is her mom. This sounds like a fabulous program that others are taking note of other institutions. We, we're really lucky that a number of other programs in Montana and Wisconsin have heard the word about Nexus and are interested in implementing this work in their programs or in their centers. So, uh and r Luckily Rutgers also has some really fantastic graduate students who are ready to make an impact at the US and more broadly. So they're the ones who are gonna take these programs to take this model and to send it into these other states and across the nation. And Leah to have your daughter Frances involved in this. What changes have you seen in her growth and development? I've just seen that like she, you know, she um she, she takes more charge of things, she takes more control of things, she's become more of a leader. Um And, and then the cooking like is amazing like I have to say this, so sorry mom. But um you have competition with your homemade French fries because she made these homemade French fries that were like the best in the world. Iiii I don't know how to describe it because usually French fries you can't reheat because they're gross. But she baked them and literally had like what garlic and what else in garlic? And it was like garlic and butter. And I don't remember if we, I don't think we had the Parmesan, I think, but we weren't supposed to have Parmesan, but we didn't, and then I, I had to reheat them because I couldn't eat them right away. And I had, I ate the whole whole thing like it was not because there were no regular fries that are like crispy. They're more like soft and buttery. Did you know she had these culinary skills? Not this. Well, I have been cooking for all but I, once a week I always make mac and cheese at home. What I do is I take the box mac and cheese and I add a bunch of my own stuff to it. Add seasonings, add my own cheese. The best part. The best thing to add to homemade mac and cheese is cream cheese. I have. That's really good. It makes it really creamy. It sounds like you need to open a restaurant.

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Founder Aaron Dallman, club member Frances De Cicco and her mother Leah spoke to News 12’s Della Crews.

Spotlight New Jersey: Nexus program at Rutgers helps young adults with autism

Founder Aaron Dallman, club member Frances De Cicco and her mother Leah spoke to News 12’s Della Crews.

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