Community Support

Jeff Semple

Published in the "Carleton Place Canadian," the "Smith Falls Record News," and the "Perth Courier" August 2005

 

Lori works at a daycare in the mornings and at a used furniture store in the afternoons. Jamie started his own entrepreneurship where he shines shoes. Scott has his own button business, where he creates and sells customized buttons, magnets, and key chains. Lori, Jamie and Scott each have an intellectual disability; they also have a job that they love.      

 

"I work at a used furniture store called Rebound where I strip furniture," says Lori. "But don't think I'm stripping clothes, mind you, just the furniture!" With the help of Community Support Services, a program of Community Living Association Lanark County, Lori was able to get a job of her choosing. "I love it there!" Lori says.

 

With locations in Almonte, Carleton Place, Perth and Smiths Falls, Community Support Services helps those with intellectual disabilities do the things they want to do.

 

"If my child was disabled, you know, you have reservations because you're so protective," says Eady May Bowes, Manager of Community Support Services in Perth and Smiths Falls. "But here it is completely individually driven. We do whatever they want to do."  And that can mean a number of different things, from looking for jobs and housing, to going to ballgames, going swimming, working out at the gym, helping with grocery shopping; The list goes on and on.

 

Needless to say, although Community Support Services is technically only a daytime service, its effects reach far beyond its hours of operation.

 

"What CSS (Community Support Services) does is it gets all of us out involved in the community, whether it's jobs, or whatever is going on," says Lori. Lori has been supported by Community Support Services since it began in 1993. It was initially brought in to replace Arc Industries, which consisted of segregated workshops for people with intellectual disabilities.       

 

"We made the decision to make the changes because we thought that we could be more person-centered, and more accountable to getting people out into the community as apposed to a segregated location," says Laura Young-Glofcheski, Manager of Community Support Services in Almonte. "People now go to their own home location in their community, and we help people make connections," she says. "It's helping people become connected, however that looks like for them."

 

And for several people with intellectual disabilities in Carleton Place, that has meant running their own Used Book Outlet. For others in Almonte, it's helping to run a used furniture store. For others in Perth, it's delivering the Perth Courier once a week. 

 

"Our main goal is to really get out there," says Maria Maloney, Manager of Community Support Services in Carleton Place. "It's important that people live as healthy a life as they can; for people not to be held back by a so-called 'disability.'"

 

For more information or to contact Community Support Services, please call (613) 257-8040.