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Tanner Dance asks state to fund LEAD and ELEVATE post‑secondary programs for adults with intellectual disabilities
Summary
Tanner Dance representatives asked the committee for $200,000 in ongoing state support to sustain LEAD and ELEVATE, two University of Utah–linked post‑secondary programs that serve adults with intellectual disabilities and combine arts, vocational training and life skills.
Representative Daley Provost introduced Tanner Dance’s LEAD and ELEVATE programs and asked the committee to consider state support to sustain the programs that provide post‑secondary arts, life‑skills and vocational training for adults with intellectual disabilities.
Mary Ann Lee (Tanner Dance executive director) described LEAD (Learning and Engaging in Arts, Discipline and Development) as a year‑long, four‑day‑a‑week program offering language arts, STEM, vocational rehabilitation and arts education to 27 students, and ELEVATE as a musical theatre production company with roughly 30 students that stages community performances. Lee said the programs partner with University of Utah programs and with Salt Lake Community College, Utah Valley University and Utah State University offerings for people with intellectual disabilities.
Lisa Thornton, a parent and volunteer, described her daughter Kate’s participation: as a result of LEAD and ELEVATE, Kate works at Deseret Book, assists as a dance instructor and participates in campus life. Thornton said the programs teach technical and soft skills including iPad use, customer service and workplace routines.
Tanner Dance asked for $200,000 in ongoing state funding to make the program sustainable; the presenters said the current annual program budget is just under $500,000 and that the programs have run primarily on soft money to date. Speakers urged the committee to fund continuing access because families with adults with intellectual disabilities often cannot sustain long‑term private payments.
Ending: Committee members expressed appreciation and accepted an invitation to view performances; a committee member asked for the program’s total budget and confirmed the $200,000 ongoing request is intended to stabilize the program’s funding alongside community support.
