Meet Karen, a 24-year-old chatterbox
"What was the one word that kept coming up in the movie?" Cindy Mitchell asks as she stands behind the lectern in the blue and grey cinder-block classroom in Toronto. The almost 30 students in her class, all beginning a two-year program to train them as support workers for people with disabilities, have just finished watching a short documentary, The Collector of Bedford Street.
It's the story of a developmentally disabled man whose neighbours rally to raise funds so that he can continue to live on his own in a tiny bachelor apartment. Yet despite all the supporters in his life, there is a certain distance. The students noticed it, and a couple say the word in response to Cindy's query: "Lonely."
"That's right," says Cindy. "Because even though he's better off than lots like him, even though he's in the community, he's still lonely."Speaking from the heart
At first glance, you wouldn't suspect that someone like Cindy Mitchell would know much about loneliness. At 51, she's attractive and outgoing, exuding the kind of optimism others try to learn in self-help books and therapy. It's a trait she puts to use both as a teacher and in her job helping families of people with disabilities find the community, government and other supports they need.
But her optimism has helped her through more personal challenges as well, challenges she's faced as the mother of a daughter with disabilities of her own.
Cindy's daughter Karen Inwood, now 24, was born with Williams syndrome, a rare genetic condition that results in "elfin" features, a small stature and developmental delays that can range from mild to profound, but with one intriguing twist: excellent verbal skills that mean her intellectual deficits are sometimes masked by the charming ability to engage in small talk.
Karen's charm
She's a chatterer, telling visitors enthusiastic stories about trips she's taken, funny things her Jack Russell terrier, Orbit, has done, how she'd love to get a part-time job at McDonald's -- even on the night shift "because there's nothing wrong with working at night" -- and how nothing will keep her from the Friday night ringette league to which she and her mother belong.
But she cannot read or do simple math, and only recently learned to recognize numbers enough to dial a phone. She needs help to organize herself to do simple, repetitive tasks, which means that even low-level employment is out of reach unless she has a support worker to accompany her or a work environment where she is closely supervised and directed. With little funding available for that support, and her mother at work, Karen has spent much of her early 20s at home, watching television. Lonely.
Click to continue to learn more about the challenges Cindy and Karen have faced...
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It's the story of a developmentally disabled man whose neighbours rally to raise funds so that he can continue to live on his own in a tiny bachelor apartment. Yet despite all the supporters in his life, there is a certain distance. The students noticed it, and a couple say the word in response to Cindy's query: "Lonely."
"That's right," says Cindy. "Because even though he's better off than lots like him, even though he's in the community, he's still lonely."Speaking from the heart
At first glance, you wouldn't suspect that someone like Cindy Mitchell would know much about loneliness. At 51, she's attractive and outgoing, exuding the kind of optimism others try to learn in self-help books and therapy. It's a trait she puts to use both as a teacher and in her job helping families of people with disabilities find the community, government and other supports they need.
But her optimism has helped her through more personal challenges as well, challenges she's faced as the mother of a daughter with disabilities of her own.
Cindy's daughter Karen Inwood, now 24, was born with Williams syndrome, a rare genetic condition that results in "elfin" features, a small stature and developmental delays that can range from mild to profound, but with one intriguing twist: excellent verbal skills that mean her intellectual deficits are sometimes masked by the charming ability to engage in small talk.
Karen's charm
She's a chatterer, telling visitors enthusiastic stories about trips she's taken, funny things her Jack Russell terrier, Orbit, has done, how she'd love to get a part-time job at McDonald's -- even on the night shift "because there's nothing wrong with working at night" -- and how nothing will keep her from the Friday night ringette league to which she and her mother belong.
But she cannot read or do simple math, and only recently learned to recognize numbers enough to dial a phone. She needs help to organize herself to do simple, repetitive tasks, which means that even low-level employment is out of reach unless she has a support worker to accompany her or a work environment where she is closely supervised and directed. With little funding available for that support, and her mother at work, Karen has spent much of her early 20s at home, watching television. Lonely.
Click to continue to learn more about the challenges Cindy and Karen have faced...
Page 1 of 5
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