Area Residents Work to Save Northern Virginia Training Center

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The group held a fundraiser recently at Jimmy's Old Town Tavern in Herndon. NVTC is located on Braddock Road in Fairfax and has 153 residents living there, according to the Connection Newspapers. The majority of its residents have severe or profound intellectual disabilities and range in age from 22 to 91 years old.

The Department of Justice began investigating the Central Virginia Training Center in Madison Heights, VA in 2008 and the investigation was broadened in 2010 and included all five training centers in the state, reported the Connection.

The findings of the investigation reported that Virginia doesn't provide services to those with disabilities in a setting appropriate to their needs and is in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. 

Virginia began negotiations with the Department of Justice in the spring of 2011 and made an agreement earlier this year that it would close four of the state's training centers by 2020 and the Northern Virginia Training Center would close June 2015. 

"If these patients are released, we’re going to see them cycling in and out of area hospitals for various afflictions and it’s going to be a huge financial burden on the state," Susan Infeld, a registered nurse with NVTC, told the Connection. "This is the time when we all need to come together and defend those who can’t speak for themselves."

To read the full story, visit the Connection Newspapers online, and check out our .