The goal of the West Virginia Autism Training Center is to help people with autism throughout the state live the lives they want to live.

"We work to make sure that our kids are using their strengths and they're doing things that they enjoy doing and we're really working very hard from the earliest, earliest ages to insure that our folks have really good jobs, a good quality of life, a good place to live and are as independent as possible," says Barbara Becker-Cottrill.

Becker-Cottrill is the Executive Director of the Autism Training Center which is located at Marshall University in Huntington.

Governor Joe Manchin visited the Center on Tuesday afternoon to officially sign into law new legislation designed to encourage the creation of trust funds for the future support of children with autism.

"When you have a child with autism, you've got, really, constant worry about what's going to happen to your child when they become an adult," Becker-Cottrill says.  "It's 24/7 concern and, then, the true worry is what will happen to them if you're not there to care for them and love them?"

The program is the first of its kind in the country.

As part of it, families of children with autism will be allowed tax deductions of up to $2,000 a year for contributions made to those trust funds.  Those trust funds will be used when the children become adults.

"This bill will provide, not just the tax credit for families in the here and now, but I really think it's going to give our families a sense of security, a sense that the future is a little brighter for their child when they become adults," Becker-Cottrill said on Tuesday's MetroNews Talkline.

Marshall University President Stephen Kopp, Senate President Earl Ray Tomblin and House Speaker Rick Thompson had been scheduled to attend Tuesday's event.