Category Archives: Our Stories

Watch as Julie as she talks about life and her family.

After I graduated from high school, one of the first places I saw myself living in was the house next door that was for sale at the time. I could still take the same route to work and not be too far away from family. But time went on and it got bought by someone […]

My name is Rose Vair. I am from Vernon, BC. The topic of bullying is very important to me. When I was a child I was bullied in elementary school. These are very painful memories that still hurt. As an adult I have experienced bullying by Ministry staff over questions about my PWD. When I […]

Dear: Self-Advocates and Professionals, I am going to become a Vision Mate with the Canadian National institute for the Blind. We as vision mates provide companionship and support with being a sight impaired person’s sighted guide. I took training on the most effective ways of doing this with Les from the CNIB office in Kamloops. […]

You guys need crisis intervention training and training in dual diagnosis as well as developmental disabilities. Sometimes you make matters worse because you have no understanding or education around developmental disabilities. You tried to charge me a government client through Community Living BC with assault when I got startled hit out not knowing what was […]

My first work experience at Value Village was when I was still in high school at D.W. Poppy. I would only work a few hours in the afternoon ragging off (taking clothes that weren’t selling off the sales floor) , Letting people into the washroom and answer questions as best as I could. After graduating […]

Watch as Julie Carlson shares her thoughts on what inclusion means to her. Julie has recently become one of our new columnists on SAN, see her full column Don’t Dis My Ability here.

I was involved in the planning of celebrations for the December 3rd International Day of Persons with Disabilities. I started planning the event in October with the help of South Island Community Council. We had a panel of people involved in the planning with myself, a police officer from Saanich, Doug Tenant from Recreation Integration […]

My name is Tawnya Jones and I am a client at Garth Homer Society in Victoria, BC. I am in the Community Access Team (CAT). We go out five days a week helping out in the community. We do lots of recycling and then donate the money to Positively Africa. The kids in Africa really […]

Written by Allan Sandner   I was born October 13th, 1956 in Grand Forks, BC.   My family owned Sandners Brothers Lumber Company and I worked in the mill for ten years, starting when I was 16 years old. I worked in the pond putting the logs on the green chain which brought them up […]