One of the long-running themes in my public writing is the fact that I’m raising a child with special needs. The chores related to making sure that Ian overcomes his autistic issues and becomes a fully functioning member of society never ends. At some point tonight, after I finish this newsletter, I must answer some emails from his school and his therapists.
I have a whole separate newsletter about disability stuff, because I know the general audience at Apt. 11D can only handle so much. But let me bend your ear for a moment. My latest round of work for Ian has opened up a whole new world for me, and I want to share.
While I hope that my son’s special math and music skills will translate into a real job some day, I know that full independence for an adult with autism is never a guarantee. At this time, only a small fraction of people with autism — even those that finish college — find a full time job and lead a typical adult life style. So, I have to simultaneously prepare my son for college and prepare ourselves for the fact that he might never find work, friends, or a life outside our house.
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I agree 100%.
When I left my media/digital content career it was really with the belief that life in my neighbourhood was better with good things to pursue in my neighbourhood. I’m a big believer in “third places,” wherever people find them.
Our community centres are good buildings here, but their use is often focused on recreation – arts classes, seniors’ clubs, fitness, sport. Groups can rent them but often get better deals from local churches to use their basements etc. I think what’s hard in the Toronto public sphere is the “hang out” time – taxpayers have a hard time with it. Libraries have been stepping in a lot.
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I also am a very big believer in the concept of community spaces. I dream of the theoretical Hull House (I don’t know enough about the actual one) in every form where it exists. Multi-generational, multi-ethnic, multi-activity, multi-income, . . . . I fear our loss of those spaces (a problem pre-dating the pandemic).
Critical to the spaces is that they are used by a wide array of people. I’ve described my hope for a community makerspace, but, I want that space to be a place *I* can actually use or I’ll end up buying my own machines and then, won’t go.
People won’t use those spaces if there is a tipping point of “too many” people with substantial needs and anti-social behavior (if people are shouting obscenities at other users, it won’t mater to most whether that’s the result of an addiction, mental illness, or developmental disability). And I don’t know how we manage the different needs and wants while still keeping everyone together — and, really, I don’t know, and I want to see different experiments.
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Just visited my two kiddos colleges for family weekends and was noting my memory (which might not be fully accurate) of community spaces in college (which is already a highly curated group of people) and the differences I see now versus then. One kiddo is working in a group space (targeted to those who identify as women); other kiddo’s college is fairly small and has heavily invested in one dining center, newly opened as a community space.
But I think even in the closed environment of college, there’s quite a struggle to create what my dream of community space is.
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My memory is suspect but we had a bunch of spaces at my small university – student union space, labs, library meeting rooms, dorm lounges. At the bigger school, I was a commuter (and married) student, so I was mostly just in and out — a big problem here in Toronto where most students don’t live on campus.
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