Inside Voice – The Self-Advocate’s Perspective
“Knowing what’s best for me” by Karel Assels
Karen Assels knows the importance of saying how she feels.
Hi! My name is Karen Assels and I live in Abbotsford. I live in my own suite in a house I share with my parents. I have an older brother who lives in Mission with his own family.
I work at Community Living British Columbia in Abbotsford as an administration assistant. I love my job and my co-workers. Recently, I gave a presentation about what working means to me at a meeting called “Employment Initiative: Dialogue with Agencies”. My boss Jai came to me and asked if I would speak to the group. I was so nervous at the beginning because I am more of a “sit in the background” person, but I discovered that I love to present.
I am a member of the Abbotsford Self-Advocate Group. We work on projects and meet every month. Our advisor is Arlene Schouten and she rocks! I support Arlene by taking notes. I am the secretary of the group.
When I was 15 I found out I have Autism. That was when I started to understand why high school was so hard for me. I was bullied and people kept telling me just ignore them but I couldn’t. Those were some hard years.
I am very good at figuring out how to cope with things that cause me stress. For example, I have a hard time in noisy places. When I am getting overwhelmed with noises, it really helps to put my ear buds in and listen to music. A big challenge for me is people who don’t understand that I do that to deal with the noises that bother me. They think I am ignoring them and want me to take the ear buds out. They just don’t understand and that is hard sometimes. I want people to know that sometimes a person is just trying to cope, that is an important message. I really know myself and can say how I feel and what I need to be ok. I know myself best.
Some of the other things I do to cope are deep breathing, text or make phone calls if I am scared of something, and surround myself with friends who support me.
Our self-advocate group got a Self-Advocates Seeding Innovation (SASI) grant from the British Columbia Association for Community Living this year. We had so much fun creating skits about three kinds of advocacy. I played a character named Blanche who was modelled after the character in the TV show “Golden Girls”. We had a blast doing the skits.
Every October I go to the Self-Advocate Retreat at Edenvale. Believe me, something has to be good if I miss being on my computer for a whole weekend. The retreat is that good and it is worth it!
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 e-mail editor@communitylivingbc.ca
