Shriver's job training plans for people with disabilities affected by California budget crisis

California First Lady Maria Shriver

From The Los Angeles Times July 14:

First Lady Maria Shriver set an ambitious agenda last year to dispel a common misperception that people who are physically or mentally impaired cannot hold jobs: Launch a campaign to find employment for 20,000 Californians with developmental disabilities. Shine a spotlight on companies that have had success hiring people with disabilities. Use her clout to attract other employers to the cause.

But with the start date four months away, Shriver's husband has potentially made her task more difficult.

Faced with a $15.2-billion state deficit, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is proposing to cut roughly $7 million from the very state programs that his wife planned to rely on for her cause -- the state-supported, nonprofit agencies that not only find jobs for developmentally disabled adults, but also coach them at work until they have mastered their duties.

The reduction, key leaders in these organizations said, will prevent them from taking on more work helping those with autism, mental retardation, cerebral palsy and other disabilities.

The inconsistency within California's first couple is not lost on these social service advocates.

"What the first lady wants to do, we're all for," said Will Sanford, interim executive director of the California Disability Services Assn., which represents 110 organizations that use a combination of state, private and charity funds to provide services to people with developmental disabilities.

"We just don't know how to make it happen given the flip side, which is taking money out of the system that is designed to make it happen."

Patty Enger, chief financial officer for a nonprofit group that serves people with developmental disabilities in Santa Barbara, Ventura and Los Angeles counties, said the governor's proposed budget cut would cost her group, PathPoint, more than a dozen positions for staff who arrange jobs and coach people with cognitive disabilities.

Enger called Shriver's plan "a wonderful idea that would take tons of planning and lots of time to come to fruition, which we don't have because they're cutting us right now."