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I remember the last time I saw my mother.
At that time there was a place here in London where
they would take kids who were going into the system.
And my mother took me there and she said that she would
be back to get me and I never saw her again.
I lost track of how many social workers that were sort of
that substitute parent for me.
All of those things that you were suppose to get at a young
age like being in a family and stuff, none of that was there.
I’ve struggled with real battles of depression.
Definitely things in the classroom made an impact on my life today.
My writing was just absolutely abominable.
I sort of knew I had it here up in my head
but I could not get it out.
And so I was seeing therapist after therapist saying what’s wrong with me?
Specifically around my learning disability it’s called a non-verbal learning disability.
And some of the challenges for that are once again being able to put things down on paper correctly; are spelling.
A great deal of my life I’ve done jobs where it involved manual labour where I avoided
having to filling out application forms or anything like that because once again I was too ashamed.
I figured if I ever went and applied for a job somewhere
they would take one look at the application form and they would throw it in the garbage
because they would see that this guy can’t even spell his name.
After a couple of weeks of testing Jessica sat down with me and explained that I did have a learning disability.
And that documentation was like gold to me.
I meet with my support person twice a week for two half hour segments.
Otherwise, you know, I am just like everybody else and it’s been phenomenal.
I wouldn’t be working at TD if it had not been for the United Way and the organizations that the United Way sponsors.
And once again that’s because people in the community
are giving something so these organizations can be up and running.
And this gives everybody their dignity.
Like, that to me, is something which is really important for me.
I always wanted my dignity and to show that I do have capabilities
and I can walk with my head up like everybody else.
Since the time I came into Canada the top thing on our minds was you know looking for a job ultimately.
At the outset I had no clue that getting into the job scene here would be a challenge.
I did a few jobs along the way.
I was kind of juggling a lot, tackling my job search along with a job, and it was a full time job obviously.
And, my husband wasn’t too well so I went back to the help centre - the London Employment Help Centre.
They encouraged me to attend the job finding club at the main branch on Dundas
which I did and I definitely I’m happy I’m better for the workshops I attended
because I had so much to learn from those.
I began to get a feel of what exactly these organizations do and what assistance
they give and when I went into it myself it was just marvellous because I never expected to get this kind of support.
My gratitude goes out to all the centres that I’ve been associated with.
Without the support of the organizations here, it would have been extremely tough to get around.
Now that I'm in WIL Employment Connections I feel, you know, it’s just come at the perfect time
because I was getting desperate.
This program has put me back on track so I feel a lot more confident.
I do not look back and I look forward.
I was really excited to go into my senior year
but school wasn’t quite what I expected when I got a month into it.
There’s a lot of bullying like not physical or anything like that just over text messages and MSN and it really bothered me.
So I said you know I don’t need this
and you know I don’t want to feel like I have to go to school and be upset almost every day.
Like I was a little depressed at the time about the bullying
‘cause I didn’t want to drop out of school I wanted to enjoy my senior year it just didn’t happen.
I always tell myself this stuff happens for a reason.
I knew I just start doing something like get a job or maybe do some online courses or something like that.
Like when I came across The Next Wave I had just went in to see what the hours were
and Sonya had asked me if I was interested in work
and I was definitely looking for a job and she got me signed up and we had some interviews.
Um and I’ve been working at The Next Wave ever since and it’s a lot of fun working with the youth and all the kids
and just taking a break and I do school part time at the Next Wave too ‘cause they offer an alternative school.
I’m going to go back in September, this September, to go back to school full time.
It’s going to be a huge difference because I’m a better person in myself.
More than ever I haven’t had this much confidence and my goals set so strongly
that I would be lost if I hadn’t had the help that I had before.
I’m just happy and grateful and I do not have any regrets about the way it’s gone this far.
And I’m very very hopeful for the future.
Because of the United Way a lot of people’s dreams are going to be fulfilled
and we are going to reach our full potential which is something
which a few years ago probably was not going to be there.
But once again we’re working together and more than ever we’re going to succeed.