An Active, Outspoken Community
User Story
By Debbie Appleby
Edmonton is jam-packed with a very active, outspoken community of parents, advocates and individuals who support people with special needs.
My name is Debbie Appleby and I am the mother of a 33 year old severely and multiply challenged son. His name is Kent.
When I found out my son was going to be handicapped, very handicapped, I was sitting in the office of Dr. Ehor Gauk at the Glenrose Hospital. I came to know and trust Dr. Gauk over the years, but his words at the time came across as harsh, unkind and totally terrifying.
As any parent of a child with special needs knows, this is not an easy ‘pill’ to swallow. Not my baby! This is NOT happening to my child. But it was.
The Glenrose Hospital was the beginning of Kent’s and my journey. It was there I started to meet other parents with babies who had one type of handicapping condition or another. During an afternoon of swimming with our kids at the Glenrose pool, one of my new found friends told me about this woman, her name was Emma and she was trying to get a program started for kids that were just too handicapped, too fragile to go into the existing programs in the city. Fact was back then, kids like Kent with multiple handicapping conditions, just didn’t have a lot of options.
I called Emma and life hasn’t been the same for me since. Even to this day, Emma doesn’t quit. She’s still as busy as ever and keeps me abreast of all of her latest publications, presentations and projects.
At that time though, back in the ‘80’s Emma was involved with the Gateway Association, and through Emma’s leadership the Gateway Residential Intensive Training Program (GRIT) was established. We started off with five little kids, and within the year the program had grown to twenty children. GRIT was (and is) a program that is in the child’s home, not at a school or other facility. The name has changed now to Get Ready for Inclusion Today, but it’s still running and with a lot bigger enrollment.
From there Emma led the charge with me following right behind to have our kids integrated into regular school rooms in age appropriate classes. It was so heartening to see children Kent’s age walk up to him, wipe the drool off his chin and say, “Hey bro, how’s it goin’?” Kent’s big grin was all the answer the other children needed. He was a member of their classroom.
When the day came to move Kent into a place of his own, my friends in the world of special needs were there by my side. We started the first home in Edmonton for our kids to live in with a model of two staff to three special needs individuals. We approached McMan Youth Services who took us on and from this first model, McMan has expanded to provide many more homes for individuals with needs as challenging as Kent’s.
I haven’t experienced living in any other city, but for my son and me, I’m glad we were here in Edmonton for the friends, the support and the variety of programs available to people like Kent.
