Anne Hart | Sunday, May 25, 2008 at 12:30 am<\/p>\n

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Heather Mullis wasn’t supposed to graduate high school.<\/p>\n

Nor was she ever expected to learn how to drive, live on her own
\nor learn enough Spanish to translate for Spanish-speakers.<\/p>\n

After all, Mullis has developmental disabilities.<\/p>\n

She also had a baby at 15 and grew up in a single-parent
\nhousehold.<\/p>\n

The odds were against her.<\/p>\n

People facing such challenges often end up alone and isolated.
\nTheir dreams, even their basic needs, aren’t taken seriously.<\/p>\n

But that’s not what this story is about.<\/p>\n

This story is about what happens when people with disabilities
\naren’t dismissed, aren’t written off, aren’t made to feel
\ninvisible by mainstream society.<\/p>\n

This story is about how volunteers with Chatham-Savannah Citizen
\nAdvocacy kept Mullis – and hundreds of people like her – from
\nfalling through society’s cracks.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Matching people with advocates<\/p>\n

CSCA is a relationship-based organization that matches
\n“protégés,” people living with developmental
\ndisabilities, with volunteer “advocates,” mainstream members of the
\ncommunity who give their time to become friends with a person with
\na disability.<\/p>\n

The goal is to help people at risk of social marginalization
\nintegrate into mainstream society. To let them know what it’s like
\nto have someone listen to them, support and encourage them.<\/p>\n

CSCA celebrated its 30th anniversary this month. Since launching
\nin 1978, CSCA has paired more than 800 advocates with
\nprotégés. About 100 matches are currently active,
\nwith 15 new matches facilitated every year.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Protégé becomes teacher<\/p>\n

Mullis credits her advocates, Tania Sammons and Molly
\nMcGoldrick, with giving her the confidence to persevere.<\/p>\n

“I’ve had kind of a so-so life,” Mullis said. “If it weren’t
\nfor Tania and Molly, I wouldn’t know what to do.”<\/p>\n

But both Sammons and McGoldrick say they’ve learned more from
\nMullis than they’ve taught her.<\/p>\n

Mullis, who has scoliosis in addition to being developmentally
\ndisabled, was matched with Sammons when she was six-months pregnant
\nand struggling to stay in high school.<\/p>\n

After Mullis had her daughter, things didn’t get easier.<\/p>\n

Mullis dropped out of high school just a few weeks before
\ngraduation. She wanted to earn money instead of a diploma. So she
\ngot a job cleaning motels.<\/p>\n

Sammons talked her into returning to school.<\/p>\n

“She told me ‘You need to get yourself an education,’ ” Mullis
\nrecalls. “If it wasn’t for her talking to me, I wouldn’t have
\ngone back.”<\/p>\n

Despite her difficulties in life, Mullis is always so
\npersonable, so inquisitive and keen to learn, Sammons said.<\/p>\n

One Christmas, Sammons gave Mullis a globe, because she
\nfrequently asked her where places were. Where’s Ireland? Where’s
\nMexico?<\/p>\n

Their friendship became even stronger when they each were
\npregnant at the same time, Mullis with her second and Sammons with
\nher first.<\/p>\n

Mullis’ other advocate, McGoldrick, loaned her car to her so
\nshe could take the driving test to obtain her driver’s license.
\nShe even took Mullis to the hospital when she went into labor.<\/p>\n

No wonder Mullis asked McGoldrick and her husband to be the
\ngodparents to her third child.<\/p>\n

Sammons and McGoldrick also take Mullis places, to the beach,
\nwaterparks, museums, and picnics in the park.<\/p>\n

They make her feel like the worthwhile person that she is.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Role models<\/p>\n

Today Mullis, 25, lives in a two-bedroom, one-bathroom mobile
\nhome in Garden City.<\/p>\n

Although making ends meet on $1,200 a month in disability
\npayments isn’t easy, Heather manages to pay the rent, cover the
\ncosts of raising her children and make payments on a used Chevy
\nBeretta.<\/p>\n

Two of her three children live with her. Her oldest daughter
\nlives with Mullis’ mom.<\/p>\n

Mullis would like to work as a translator someday. She picked up
\nSpanish from friends and helps people out by translating at their
\ndoctors appointments and other errands.<\/p>\n

But right now Mullis says her work is being a mom.<\/p>\n

Mullis calls her children her biggest pride, pointing to a
\npicture of her son in frame he made of Popsicle sticks.<\/p>\n

Mullis wants to be as good a mother as her “second mothers,”
\nhave been to her.<\/p>\n

The admiration is mutual.<\/p>\n

“It’s extra hard to navigate life sometimes if you have certain
\nchallenges. Heather has shown a lot of courage,” McGoldrick said.
\n“It’s been a privilege to be her friend.”<\/p>\n

http:\/\/savannahnow.com\/node\/504404<\/p>\n

2008 SavannahNOW and the Savannah Morning News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anne Hart | Sunday, May 25, 2008 at 12:30 am script language=”JavaScript1.1″> <object classid=”clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000″ codebase=”http:\/\/download.macromedia.com\/pub\/shockwave\/cabs\/flash\/swflash.cab#version=6,0,0,0″ id=”ad_banner” align=”” height=”250″ width=”300″> Heather Mullis wasn’t supposed to graduate high school. Nor was she ever expected to learn how to drive, live on her own or learn enough Spanish to translate for Spanish-speakers. After all, Mullis has developmental disabilities.… More \u00bbPutting the social in ‘social change’<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wikipediapreview_detectlinks":true,"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","neve_meta_reading_time":"","_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourbigclan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourbigclan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourbigclan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourbigclan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourbigclan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourbigclan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourbigclan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourbigclan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourbigclan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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