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We are a group of young people living with disabilities who reside in and around the small towns of Clearwater County. Due to our diagnoses of disability, we receive special education services from the Clearbrook-Gonvick and Bagley schools. We are members of local churches, participate in extracurricular activities, have worked in local businesses as part of our transitional school programming and live in families with nondisabled brothers and sisters. Through the years our families have come together to support each other in the decision making process regarding our life plans. As with our non-disabled siblings, our parents have helped us choose classes in school, complete homework, overcome limitations and discover our talents and interests. Our teachers have supported and celebrated the development of skills that some had told us we could not achieve. As we entered high school our families began to help us explore our options for our life after high school. With our nondisabled brothers and sisters, this process meant evaluating the various post secondary educational and vocational opportunities and helping them make an appropriate choice for their particular talents and interests. Because our various disabilities place limitations on our independence, our parents began to help us find opportunities with the necessary support. We found we needed to look outside Clearwater County for these opportunities. We met with families of young people living with disabilities in counties of our northwestern region to learn of educational, employment, recreation, supported housing and transportation options. While our friends in adjacent Beltrami and Polk Counties had many choices, it became apparent to us as we examined our home county that, by virtue of living in Clearwater County on drastically underfunded support systems, we were dependent on a system that offered few opportunities to continue our development into productive adult citizens. Our parents will always be a source of support, but we are ready to begin the task of achieving a level of independence. We dream of a home with a room of our own, jobs that make use of our education, friendships with peers and support systems that respect our individuality. We thank all who support us in our desire to remain in our home communities and move, as our classmates and siblings are, into life as contributing adults. We are not asking for more than anyone else, just opportunities equal to those enjoyed by our friends living with disabilities in neighboring communities. Sincerely,
Bradley Serbus, Cory and Julie Nelson
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