A message from our Past-president Grace Smith, April 2022

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Recently, one of our young adults and I put together a presentation for a couple of virtual conferences. The first was for the ARC of Kalamazoo and the second was for Disability Advocates of Kent County’s Transition Fair.  My presentation went through a quick history of Oasis: how we are working toward independent housing and why. Her presentation was far more significant to those listening. She spoke about her own experiences – why she feels independence is important to her and how she’s gotten to the place where she is comfortable living in an apartment an hour away from family.

When I first joined Oasis my son was still in elementary school and I wasn’t completely convinced he could ever be independent enough to consider living on his own.  I wanted that for him – I wanted him to have as much free-will and choice in his life and everything involved in his future, but I wasn’t sure we’d ever really get there.  When I went with other board members for training at Center for Independent Futures in Evanston, Illinois, I was still trying to convince myself that he could do this.  He was 14, so I knew we had some time, but I really needed someone to convince me this would work.   
 
While we were in Evanston, we met some of the disabled adults in their program. They had a variety of disabilities and we met them in their apartments.  When I met a young man very much like my own son, who had worked for months to learn the bus route to get to his job in downtown Chicago, who others would have looked at and just assumed he should be in a group home – I was convinced.  He was living with a roommate and living the dream.  He was happy, he was in charge of his own life, he had friends, and he had a part-time job.  After an evening watching and learning from him and his roommates and the other two guys who lived in the apartment downstairs – I was ready to make this happen for my son.  

The most important thing about our young adult’s presentation – she was telling parents and others with disabilities that they could do this too.  They could become more independent – whatever that looks like for them.  They could expand their horizons to potentially include a job, volunteer work, college, friends, and a social life. This is what parents need to see and hear.  As Covid is controlled and we start to gather for spring and summer, always feel comfortable talking to our young adults who have transitioned to their own homes.  Introduce your child if they don’t know them already and let them ask questions.  It’s so much easier to believe that they can have this independence too if they can see it for themselves.