According to a New Brunswick Association for Community Living statistic, approximately 22,000 people live with an intellectual disability and 70 percent of those live in poverty. The NBACL works to ensure that, with the support of their families, this group has the option to choose supports they need to live meaningful lives, participating in their communities as valued members.
I became acquainted with one of their members, Lorraine Silliphant and her son, Ralph, back in the 70s when they lived in the same apartment complex as I and my 3 roommates — Wilmot Park Apartments. Those were the days!
Fast forward several years when I was asked by a former STU classmate working with Health and Community Services if I’d be interested in taking on one of their clients, Susan, who lived with an intellectual disability. She had returned home to Fredericton to finish her education at Fredericton High School after living and learning at Bonny Lee Farms, a private school in Nova Scotia.
After that structured learning milestone, the goal was independent living; but first, enhancement of life skills was in order. That’s where I came in. It was a learning process for all of us, especially Susan’s Mom, who early on was overly helpful. That’s understandable when one’s child with challenges is testing the waters of independent living. Moms have their own challenge of letting go so she can grow – my own mother went through that.
During her time with me, I connected Susan with Jobs Unlimited. At that time, Brad Slauenwhite was the Executive Director and his commitment to providing quality services and programs was second to none. His presence is still very much felt in Fredericton and beyond.
Susan and all thrived in that environment as they prepared to settle into community life, gainfully employed upon acquisition of requisite skills for jobs to which they’d be assigned. Susan soon found her way to Zellers in the Brookside Mall. From time to time, I’d stop in to say hello, sitting in my wheelchair at one of the restaurant’s dining tables. I reminded her that she was at work and we couldn’t have a long visit; she was getting better at time management. It was evident she enjoyed the job and the interactions with fellow workers who took her under their wing. That’s as it should be. In that environment she flourished.
It had been my hope that persons with intellectual challenges doing the same job as another without disability would get the same wage. Alas, that was not always the case. Certainly, many people like Susan have subsidized situations where the government provides financial incentives to employers. Would she and the rest have been hired without them if they were qualified based on ability? They should be. Equal pay for equal work levels the playing field and provides a hand up out of poverty-line living. Susan never thought about things like that; not many in her situation did. In a way, the ‘system’ took advantage of their naïveté. Susan had an active, involved life living in her apartment in Fredericton, surrounded by a network of friends and her family who appreciated and loved her for being her.
In January of this year, Susan Shore passed away at the age of 60, leaving a strong legacy that will forever shine a light on the needs and wants of people like her who seek to find their place to live in a community where they can go to work, have a safe place to hang their hat and enjoy activities in the community that enrich their lives; all good things, important to health and wellness.
With her passing, I recognize that many support people are aging out of their ability to meet the demands of providing daily or even weekly interventions on behalf of adults living with challenges to their day-to-day.
It’s critical that the ranks of volunteers be increased to fill in the gaps. High school or university students who have interest in teaching, nursing, social work, or medicine, regardless of speciality, have a place in the lives of people like Susan, who can teach them far more than they’d ever learn from a text book. Being a social inclusion volunteer is a win-win!
Carla MacInnis Rockwell is a freelance writer and disability rights advocate living outside Fredericton, NB with Miss Lexie, a rambunctious Maltese and Mr. Malcolm, the boisterous Havanese. She can be reached via email at Carla MacInnis Rockwell
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