Supervisor Foust Joins Board
John Foust, who served as the Dranesville District supervisor until his recent retirement, has joined the board of directors for SPARC. This non-profit provides day programs for Northern Virginia adults with severe and multiple disabilities.
“We are excited to have John join our board. He has been involved with SPARC for many years and sees the need as well as SPARC’s contributions to serving people in our community with severe disabilities who often languish at home. John’s leadership, commitment, and knowledge will help guide our efforts as we shape SPARC’s future on behalf of Northern Virginia’s forgotten,” explained Debi Alexander, SPARC executive director.
“I am a long-time fan of SPARC and the important work it does to reach people often invisible in our community. I am honored to serve on SPARC’s board and help ensure that more people with severe disabilities have access to this non-profit’s outstanding and life-changing program.”
Foust served as supervisor from 2008 through his retirement this past January. As a supervisor, he advocated for policies that balanced growth, grew the local economy, reduced congestion, supported public education, protected the environment, created affordable housing, and provided essential services to the community’s most vulnerable and needy members. Before joining the Board of Supervisors, he was an attorney specializing in construction and real estate law with a law degree from George Washington University. He lives with his wife in Falls Church and has two grown sons.
SPARC has a cost-effective, unique program serving young adults who have aged out of the special education support provided by the K-12 system and are not eligible for other community-based programs that serve individuals with severe and multiple disabilities. Started nearly 20 years ago, SPARC hosts centers that operate five days a week at various county locations in Fairfax and Arlington with staff-led programming based on a curriculum rooted in therapeutic recreation principles that consist of continued education/leisure learning, skill building, exercise, excursions, cooking, music, art, lectures, discussion groups, and more.
SPARC’s clients require support with daily living activities, and without SPARC, they are often neglected and forgotten. SPARC’s annual cost per participant is $9,000. If the SPARC participant instead attended a Medicaid provider, the taxpayer cost would average $39,000 per year plus the cost of transportation. SPARC will be opening new centers that serve more throughout the region.