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by Laurie Porter

For a long time I have dreamed about living on my own. My Mom and I were watching TV and we saw a commercial with people with developmental disabilities living on their own, I told my Mom that I would like to do that too. She has been helping me to figure out the things I need to learn. I made a list of the things I needed to learn to live on my own. I need to know how to cook for myself, how to shop for the groceries, how to do my laundry, I need to pay the rent, the electric, cable, and telephone. I need to stay healthy by doing physical activities. I play sports like golfing, basketball and playing tennis with my friends.

I go to SUFU workshops and trainings to learn about things like leadership and speaking skills, and learning how to make an action plan will help me to be able to move out on my own.

I started to help my Mom with the cooking, and I am learning to do my laundry in steps.

I would like to live in Medway so I could be closer to where I like to go play Bingo twice a week. I saw some apartments I would like to live in. I could work in the mill, the store, or the restaurant. It is important to me that I am near my Mom.

I would like to have a job working for SUFU doing office work. I am learning to type on the computer, right now I work at the Maine Trellis company. The company started as a school, and it turned into a business. I have been there for 30 years.

I can use my self advocacy skills to tell people what I want, and ask for help. I have been speaking up for myself for many years; I am part of the Patten peer group we do fundraising to go to conferences, we talk about budget cuts, job skills, community inclusion, we talk about how to stay safe, we keep each other informed about date changes & we share our dreams.

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