On the move in community
James Janzen shares information about finances at his topic table at the Fraser Self-Advocate Conference.
By James Janzen
My name is James Janzen and I live with my wife Bonnie in Abbotsford. Bonnie and I have been married for three years and we live in our own home.
This year has been really good. I have been working as the Self-Advocate Consultant for the Quality of Life demonstration project through CLBC.
Quality of Life is a way to survey people who get services from CLBC. What is really best about this survey is that it is self-advocates who are asking the questions and recording the answers. It is a good way to make people feel comfortable about answering questions. It is also an excellent job for self-advocates. We have learned a lot of skills in the last few months.
I am the consultant and I also do the interviews with the individuals. It’s a challenging job and a great job too.
I think the most challenging part is dealing with the unknown. We never know exactly how the interview will go. I have had to learn to be flexible in this job. I have learned how to get from Abbotsford to many different communities like Burnaby, Langley, and Chilliwack. Thank goodness for my GPS. It gets me where I need to go.
I work a lot. I also work at Home Depot as a Lot Associate. I help customers load things into their cars. It is hard work. I had to work out at the gym to get stronger so I could do this job. I have worked for Home Depot for eight years. I also have my own business repairing computers. Really my dream is to have one full-time job.
I am the president of the Abbotsford Self-Advocate Group. The group meets once a month and we have two advisors, Gregg Schiller and Arlene Schouten. There are around 30 members and we do some fundraising and advocacy. The group was really small when I joined and I had an idea to create an agenda for meetings to help it be more organized. Now it is a big group and I have been the president longer than I can remember. We meet at the offices of Communitas and new members are always welcome.
I have lived a lot of places in BC but now call Abbotsford home. My parents live in Abbotsford as well. I have two sisters, one lives in Calgary and one in Chilliwack.
My wife and I live in a condo with our cat Tigress. We love being homeowners but it is challenging at the same time.
To learn more about the Quality of Life demonstration project, please click here.
Inside Voice is published in each issue of The Citizen. If you are interested in writing for this column, please call Chris Rae at 1-877-660-2522, or email editor@communitylivingbc.ca.
