hello and welcome to pathways i'm jenny heartsore and your host and i'm really excited to introduce to two guests today denise is living in a group home she lived twenty years ago an institution and she's here to tell us how she got from the institution to the to living on her own and sharon also works for a wonderful organization that helps people like denise called unable so she'll tell us a little bit about her organization and and  she got there and what she loves about what she does so without further ado i would like to start with you denise welcome ladies thank you denise you lived in an institution in you said in new york and then you lived in another institution and i'd like to share with us a little bit about i know was a long time ago but do you have any any memories of what it was like and could you describe  us sort of what your what your room looked like and what the people that you lived with were like and things like that both institutions johnstone and just a was in the cage i didn't i didn't like we didn't go out much it really if we went out at all the only new york institute the only places that we went was rockaway beach in new york and younkers and then when i went to the johnstone i was in new york institute from the age of thirteen to the age of eighteen and then i came to johnstone i was eighteen and i went to the border two places we didn't go anyplace else he said you felt like you lived there like a year but tell me more about that feeling what's i feel like i just felt like interact with what you did you know i mean we can move around in all but we couldn't we didn't go out much if and what what what did you sleep in a room by yourself that you have no n that i had a i had two roommates one i didn't get along with and the other one i loved very much tell me about the one you didn't get along with oh i just didn't like her her name was sally  i just didn't like her her personality was not not a good personality you know so when you lived in this and this and this institute what kind of people did you live with were they all people that had you know were where they have people that are mentally ill there as well or was it just people with disabilities i don't remember that's probably harder you were eighteen when you left and what were the people that worked there were there were they kind to you  the one house mother was the one i had we had a house mother that came from minnesota and i liked her a whole lot and what did you like about her again her personality she just very nice i had to do i had to write a poem for language arts in new york institute and she helped me write a poem it was about everybody in my class had to write a didn't and i knew you didn't he said that you started out by pretty poignant comment which was that i felt like i was living in a cage i did feel that i was in a cage in both new york institute and johnstone the poet i was in the cage like we didn't go out to listen to radio and listen to news and we poor whatever we heard so i heard i heard that i really i didn't we i didn't understand what she meant so i reported a commercial about a swedish meatballs i thought my heinie yeah i yeah so she really said she you were you were physically beaten for for doing the the job very young child and your parents gave you up to a foster home you know my mother mother and father passed away ok so that's why you ended up in a foster home yes my my mother pay with my father passed first  and you both your parents died so you ended up going to a foster family while i was staying with my sister first ok and then my sister and my brother both put me in the foster home and in the institution new york wow so you really you've really been through a lot and i guess what i what i buy shows about you know it's about ordinary people who do extraordinary things and i think you're one of those extraordinary people who just wants to have an ordinary life  tried to do the best i can with what i can do yet maybe put the focus on what is it that you can do versus what you can't write and that's actually a good attitude for everybody don't you think too many people want to do things that they can't do and they're not happy with what they can so this is a really interesting and i really appreciate you being so honest thank you so much and so you say you were you were in the foster home you were dealing with certainty and really being mistreated adequate to say beaten not not well treated let's be honest  wheelchair and my foster mother wasn't home neither time it was just me and him by ourselves in the house or you had to be terrified i didn't mean he the first time he did it  i did not and then the second and i reported it to the full before the first time and she did something about it and then the second time she did he did it and i told her she she didn't believe me the second  we've got me and there thank god and michelle for me because i spoke up boss or he hurt me and i i don't have it anymore but i did have evidence that he did that that's awful do you feel like other people that are disabled could maybe be inspired by listening to you and learning that they should be able to speak up when they can't that's right right that's right yeah that's it's very inspiring to think about being blind and  disabled and having someone bully you and abuse you like that and being so helpless right here i thank goodness you spoke up i was well let it hurt me another time for you i know there you have some self esteem going on there that's a good thing i was seventeen but i didn't i know let the do you know that what he was doing was wrong you know you didn't deserve that right wow so so when you went from the foster home to the institution which was worse booth yeah yeah both how were they different you abused at the institute as well no  don't not like being institutionalized who would sounds awful living in a cage yet doing what it felt like yeah can i ask you a question and i want to i want to talk about the good things that happen now  so how did you get yourself from that horrible institution where you felt like you're living in a cage how did you get from there to where you're living now can you tell us oh another place and i spoke up i'll say wait a minute yeah i'll say wait a minute i said i know betty and i have my roomie barry and i are going to an some of them are some are in another institution from place so you feel bad leaving them behind how about you do so tell it you ended up speaking out and you ended up in the group home that's right is that how you first came to know about unable yeah i heard about it from i forget i forget who told me about it but it doesn't matter but you ended up going from the institution i really when february eighteenth get got here as a thank you thank you very much thank you thank you very much and what now when you went into the group home what was it about it besides the doors open and you were free can you give us more of a description of what it felt like there what made it so much better for you to the people be out be out of there ok prince of community television right yes so so you're part of the church that's right and you are part of the fires are you saying that you can guess what craig will have to have a little song later  answer oh i see understand what you say so you keep her company and talk to her yeah and i listen to books on tape and she listens with me oh wonderful so she can listen to yes oh that's fabulous so you're looking  at you're reading books on tape by listening you're going to church you're part of the choir anything else because sharon has to have a little time to talk next it's hard to tear myself away from you no offense sharon but i mean she's got an interesting  anything else you want to tell us about the difference and what you hope for the people that are in the institute now still left behind i want to say for the people that are still institutionalized o of been able right and i am interested in what what brought you here what made you decide that you wanted to work for an organization like this well i've been in social work and i grew up in the midwest actually in minnesota so that as minnesotans must be a good thing right that it's minute and i grew up in a large family on a farm and we were just very much about taking care of one another and our larger extended family and being very involved in the community and i kind of fell into social work i started by getting involved actually with women who had addiction issues and felt that it was a wonderful way to be involved in other people's lives vulnerable working with vulnerable populations helping them just get their feet on the ground and have a get it having opportunity to do the best they can with whoever they are with whatever gifts that they have to be active and as invested in the community as they can be and able is just a part of that history in the well i mean i just want to read some statistics that your assistant francis made today that nearly one in five americans has a disability one in ten has a severe disability one child out of every six has a developmental disability fifty six point seven million americans have disabilities one in four of today's twenty year olds will become disabled before they retire and you know i think that that's what that says to me is that this is not a population that's a sort of you know temper i mean this is really a large group of us that are  ed so how do you how do you deal with that i mean what is your philosophy at unable why do you know how do you feel that what you're doing needs to happen more because i mean obviously more people in need but you know well especially then so many of us at some point in our life may be dealing with a disability and we're now having all the baby boomers you know moving into becoming seniors and more elderly it's just important to keep in mind that everybody no matter your age or your ability you still have a right to be as included in the community as possible so i think we're looking to find ways that like the nation can be involved in in her her choice of place of worship she can she has friends that she can be active in the community go places do things we work hard to help people with disabilities as well as seniors remain in their own homes as long as they can we're all part of an interdependent web so how can we work together to make that happen the other something about you know something in your home and having a home right denise and then having a home and at the institute feel like a home a versus the insists it was what sharon was saying he said i belong to a community i mean he said and so many specific ways but the big picture i heard was i was part of a bigger community besides the sort of cage that i lived in  before right and that freedom every every human being deserves the right to that freedom that whether you're blind or disabled in any way you have so many abilities you have so much to offer that's right i mean you know you should have your own t v show glee i mean is what a waste of a human being's life to be caged up in a building where you're not treated like everyone else with the ability to go to community events and be a part of it get back yourself you're the person first or disability is second that's right that's right don't worry about the disability you're a person first and if people don't understand then than they have a real problem absolutely now do you what kind of hopes do you have sharon for unable i mean you've been able to help people for the last twenty years what kinds of things would you like to see happen in the next five years for the organization well i think we're always looking at what makes it so hard for the broader community to accept people with disabilities what kinds of barriers are there and that's what we keep working at certainly attitudes in our thoughts and feelings our own worries about being vulnerable ourselves often makes us hesitant to have a great friend like denise so one of the things we try to look at is how to keep shaping attitudes in the larger public arena by helping folks with disabilities attend gems you know going to their place of worship having jobs or working as volunteers and in places we have a lot of folks who help with meals on wheels for example or go down to trend area soup kitchen help out so we want to have people with disabilities be present in the communities and begin to affect you know all of us in terms of our attitudes about hey that's ok it's just another diverse person in our in our community and i also heard from denise to sharon addressing that giving back yeah denise you talked about your friend who can't speak and i don't know if i'm putting words in your mouth but it sounded like you really wanted to help her you know by reading letting her look to listen to books on tape with you and reading to her right yes i mean you have a desire grant yeah and then maybe you need the opportunity also to give back for all the people that have helped you that's got to be a good feeling for you but you should have that right right to have that opportunity and i love nicole  well now i want to give you a another minute sharon to tell us something that you want to tell us about your organization and anything you want to tell the viewers about what they can do because i know there's a big internship there's a volunteer on your  if you want to just you can go ahead and take a minute look at the camera and tell us what you need money whatever you need to speak to the camera we always need money we're always looking for donors that are going to say the most the most not prophets very kind of in that boat but we do have a very large to program because that volunteer ng is one way to bring people into our services as well as to have those that we serve get back out into the community by those kinds of relationships forming and developing we tend to have over a internship as well as volunteers who want to make a difference and do something worthwhile so a lot of the programs a lot of the services of course we need to hire folks who want to work with people with disabilities and we're always looking for more employees because it's a you know eyes as we have a lot of people that we serve we have a lot of needs we provide respite care to families where the person with a disability is still living at home we provide as they said services to seniors who want to remain at home we have group homes with the program so we're always looking for good good people who want a job that makes a difference that they know that makes a difference in their life and i me and i and i tell them i think when i go  spoken and i'm very impressed with your story it's a story of hardship but you overcame it and you are i know you know you are an extraordinary person think doing extraordinary things and but you are living a life that you once wanted and dreamed about and that's really inspiring you know and you it took a long time to fly out like a little bird out of your cage right good for you i had to fight i had to fight but i sure did i'm afraid ladies i'm going to have to close the show so i'm going to have to say goodbye but i really appreciate you both coming here thank you for having us and taking the time to be