For Leslie Francavilla, the Special Olympics is about more than just sports: It’s a community that she says has given her 35-year-old son, Mathew, the confidence to lead an independent life that she didn’t even know she had. previously not sure it was possible.
Over the past 14 years, Mathew has participated in all 11 sports offered in Santa Clara County. Her mother has coached five, including bowling, floor hockey and swimming, for 13 years.
“One of the things that’s really difficult about having a child with special needs is that my son is cognitively aware enough to know what the world is doing around him, and so he’s always aspired to be like everyone else,” Francavilla said. “In college, he wanted to play sports, he wanted to be involved in things, and those opportunities just don’t exist.”
Santa Clara County is one of more than 40 member counties of Special Olympics Northern California, stretching from the Oregon border in the north to Tulare County in the south. President and CEO David Solo called Santa Clara County “a model for other counties” because the Board of Supervisors has allocated funds to the program in recent years, which Solo said has helped to expand its reach to 1 in 25 disabled residents in Silicon Valley.
Although it is not uncommon for counties to dedicate funds to Special Olympics activities in their area (San Mateo County provides $75,000 per year, for example), Santa Clara County’s contribution represents more than the half of the organization’s $1.1 million budget for the region.
But this year is different. The county faces a bleak financial situation in the upcoming fiscal year, and it remains to be seen whether Special Olympics Northern California will benefit from the more than $600,000 in critical funding they have received in years past.
Santa Clara County leaders warned last year that their budget deficit could reach $250 million for the 2024-25 fiscal year. And even though county officials were able to scrape together enough money through other revenue sources and cuts to close the gap, supervisors still face tough choices as they review the proposed budget of $12.4 billion.
Solo and other Santa Clara County parents, coaches and athletes pleaded with the board last week, asking them to continue funding the Special Olympics.
“I think our population is sometimes forgotten, and part of that is because they’re not advocating for themselves, and so I think they’re sometimes left out of the equation,” Solo said. “We’re really trying to make ourselves heard and make sure we’re advocating for their interests.” »
Although funding for the Special Olympics was excluded from the proposed budget released earlier this month, County Executive James Williams said at a meeting last week that the board had included it on a list of items to be reconsidered in June if there was money left.
Board President Susan Ellenberg said she was “very disappointed” to see the funding cut, but understood the decision because the county is in a difficult financial situation.
“My goal is first and foremost to maintain basic services, to maintain services that only the county provides and only the county has funding for,” Ellenberg told The Mercury News. “Then anything beyond that is exciting and wonderful. I want our organization to provide broad support for programs that promote the health and well-being of communities.
Ellenberg said she thinks the board could find the money by diverting funding from a reserve it has to build inclusive playgrounds. The $5 million in that tranche, she said, could be difficult to spend because it requires matching contributions from the city where they’re building the playground — which they don’t have at the moment .
“I think this would be a safe and prudent way to get this money into the community more quickly and directly support our disability community,” she said.
If the county ultimately can’t come up with the funds, Solo said the Northern California Special Olympics group would likely have to cut the services it provides with its $1.1 million budget in Santa Clara County. The county currently has 473 Special Olympics athletes, but statewide data, he said, shows more than 12,000 residents countywide with developmental disabilities.
“There’s a lot more need there that we could fill, a lot more opportunity in Santa Clara County,” Solo said.
These are opportunities that Leslie Francavilla says aren’t found elsewhere, especially for people who have already completed their education. After graduation, she said, many people with disabilities and their families struggle to find a community of their own. The Special Olympics, she said, fills that void.
“We have nothing for our disabled population,” Francavilla said. “It’s the only thing that really fits this bill.”
California Daily Newspapers
