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Through
the years the Charlotte White Center has come to mean
many things to many different people. For many of
the people we serve and for many of those who work
here it has been a truly life changing experience.
A former Board member once described the Charlotte
White Center as this community's "silent partner."
Indeed we can measure a portion of our success by
how little the community notices our presence. For
so many of the people we serve, nothing is more profound,
more empowering, than to have the opportunity to shape
the destiny of their own lives, as promised to all
of us by the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.
The
promise of personal freedom and the frank desire to
control and shape our own destiny is fundamental to
the level of personal satisfaction we take in our
lives. This is a hard won lesson we have learned from
years of service to people facing and overcoming life
challenges. It is a lesson we have been taught by
all the
good people we have been given this chance to
serve. They know, as others continue to learn, that
if we are to truly value one another it begins with
trusting and with giving people the right to their
own personal dignity through freedom of choice. As
Wolfensberger has so often been paraphrased, "the
freedom to choose is also the freedom to fail." Sometimes
the best work we do is when we do nothing more than
assist someone in choosing, getting, and keeping their
own personal goals.
Here's
a short list of some recent accomplishments by the
people who make us what we are, a place for all of
us to be our best.
- A child served by the Charlotte White Center through our In-Home Habilitation Specialist Services receives her school's Achievement Award while overcoming numerous personal challenges.
- One consumer started his first real job at a local supermarket.
- Another consumer begins working with our Supported Employment program and becomes a much more open, friendly person.
- One long time consumer is recognized as the agency's "oldest consumer" at the age of ninety-eight years.
- After finding her biological family, one consumer speaks at a Direct Support Conference in Augusta detailing her experience.
- A young man attends his first chess tournament and goes on to play in several tournaments to place eighth in the state.
- A young lady graduates high school and finds her first job.
- Another long time consumer is recognized as the "top loser" by a local weight loss group after losing 130 pounds.
- Consumers take trips to Bar Harbor and attend a camping trip to Greenville, with one participant taking her first ever vacation at age eighty-three!
- A consumer opens his own business mowing lawns in his community.
As
the Zen maxim goes, even the longest journey begins
with a single step. What you have witnessed above
is just one step in a constant journey of life for
people to whom we as the supporters, the coaches,
the cheerleaders, have been given, for however brief
a time, the distinct privilege to share the road.
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