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Meet Joe. Living with the label of disability, his social network looks significantly different
than most.
Joe has his family. Just like most of us, at the end of the day, there's never enough
family.
Teachers, barbers, dentists, accountants, make up part of the people paid to be in Joe's
life, but the majority are direct support staff, who he spends a lot of time with. He
can rely on them for services, but they are often in his life temporarily,
But out of everyone in Joe's life, close friends and acquaintances, people he runs into occasionally
like neighbors or the clerk at his local movie store, are the smallest number by far.
Finding friends is an unpredictable road that can be tricky for anybody. It takes the perfect
combination of common interests, shared places, mutual respect, and a touch of serendipity.
Sometimes there's a spark, one that none of us can predict.
From the time he was first labeled with a disability, Joe's life has been planned out
for him.
While this was planned by a well-meaning society, it has meant that Joe has to work a little
harder to build his social than others. It often led to him being placed in separate programs, away from everyday life.
Now Joe and his family are on the road to turning this picture around by drawing on
Joe's passion for history to build natural relationships. Joe and his mom spend time
in conversation with people, visiting with people who love history too, hoping to make
connections over time that will lead to doing stuff together, or collaborating on a community
project, so that maybe they will find that spark of serendipity that can lead to more
people in Joe's life.