Many individuals with disabilities, they do not get the respect that they need in the community.

I want them to feel a part
of the community that they live in.

While in high school, at 16 years old, my uncle
who was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at birth,
he came to live with my mom and I.

I basically became a part-time caregiver for him with my mother. And it was a huge adjustment because he didn’t have any services in place that needed to be for someone who had a developmental disability. He was never in a place where there were others like him that he could communicate with, that he was able to build a lifelong bond with, so my mother and I, we saw that disconnect in his life.
So we began services with
the New Jersey Division of Disabilities. Taking care of someone with a disability
can be a huge adjustment to your life, especially at 16 years old. You know, your mom is working full time and she needed someone there with him when she couldn’t be. He couldn’t be left home alone. It was very tough because if you’re coming into this blindly, you don’t know what services
are offered for anyone with disabilities. So, that was a huge adjustment for my uncle. Even moving him from a senior citizen
day program where he played Bingo all day,
which he loved, but to a more… a program that was actually for him, that taught him independent life skills.
My uncle’s story, I knew that there were other families like us, so that passion just never went away. I basically was a director for 11 group homes throughout the state of New Jersey. Some of those individuals had families
and some of them did not.
And the ones that didn’t have families, they did touch my heart a little bit more because they didn’t have anyone advocating or supporting them. I know it gets difficult. It gets hard.
And you don’t know sometimes who to trust in caring for your family and friends. We’re a boutique style agency. I want all of my support coordinators
to be able to offer that one-to-one assistance that a lot of agencies or a lot of individuals are not given because of their large capacity. As a former case manager myself, I know, having a large case load,
you can’t have that one-to-one communication
and personal relationship with the families. We here at Amazing Strides strive, strive, strive for that.

It all definitely goes back to my uncle. It’s a difference when they actually are living with you. You’re whole world is now turned a little bit upside down. But, it’s family. At the end of the day, there was never a ‘no’ or a doubt in my mind that I would not help out my mom
in any situation that she needed.