we ve helped the marine mammal center go solar, install electric vehicle charging stations, and become more energy efficient. pg&e has allowed us to be the most sustainable organization we can be. any time you help a customer, it s a really good feeling. it s especially so when it s a customer that s doing such good and important work for the environment. together, we re building a better california. reporter: for the last three years, mary and lenore have years, mary and lenore have carried their sons through an unstable, scary transition. they ve fought for every bit of help they could find.
that is one of the general misconceptions about autism is that it only affects children. you don t outgrow autism? you do not outgrow autism. look, we re gonna play catch! reporter: the clock is ticking on nicholas kubicsko s services too. the long island teenager has just months left before he turns 21 and loses access to resources his mother says have changed his, and her, life. i never gave up on nick. i always knew that there was more to him. i knew that he was in there. i knew he was trying and when we supported him at home. i kept getting glimpses. i knew where that young man was. reporter: finding a way to reach nick has been a challenge. he used to live in a 24 hour residential treatment center. but lenore says the staff had trouble with nick s obsessive behavior. it was torture for him to have someone try to intervene and rush him or prevent him from doing something. and what did that lead to? initially protesting. and it eventually evolved into him becomin
and there s no instruction manual right? no. it depended on who you got on the other end of the phone. i remember making cold calls to 30 agencies and just taking notes like crazy and i look back at the notes and i m like, my god. it was chaos. you re doin all right. reporter: there is one particular program lenore has been desperate to get nick enrolled in before he aged out known as self determination. the government would allocate a certain amount of money for nick and let his family pick and choose how to spend it on services for him at home. but with graduation just a few weeks away, lenore finds out he s been wait listed. he has no program to transition to. because the funding is not there and he is stuck on a waiting list. ok thanks, bye bye. reporter: eric s mother mary is deeply concerned about her son s transition too. she s been looking for adult programs for him for years. my short list of things that i thought probably would come through, i m working m
reporter: a month after nick s graduation, his mom lenore is flipping through his appointment calendar. it s where she keeps track of his meetings with teachers and other caregivers, and it s empty. there s nothing to write. there s nobody coming. lenore is on her own. reporter: what are those first weeks like? i remember pulling the shades, turning on the air conditioner and saying, ok buddy. it s just me and you. reporter: as the weeks went on, lenore says she watched her son regress before her eyes. his personality dimmed. his willingness to interact dimmed. because there s less practice. there s less to do. there s less opportunity. it s like it s literally dimming the lights. reporter: nick has been on a waiting list for government money to pay for the at-home services his mom really wants. but there s a catch, even if the funding comes through, the state requires anyone receiving services to have a social
hospitalized, lenore calls an agency that provides services for nick, begging for help. lenore feels like once again, she s on her own. that s all i can do is hope and keep my fingers crossed. and work with him minute by minute. minute by minute. some days are truly minute by minute. you re thinking about the shawnee hotel, yes? yeah. reporter: after months of lobbying state administrators and looking for loopholes, she manages to piece back together some of nick s support team. over muffins and coffee one recent weekend, lenore brings them back up to speed on nick. we know now he s not wrong, he s just him. but he needs supports from us to be ok with being him. reporter: lenore knows nick will always need a lot of help. but she also knows he can still participate in his community. we join nick and his team members as they recycle bottles and cans that nick collects. wow. $1.25, $1.45, 25, 35, i m not