Valerie Spreads the Love

Valerie is a 28 year old woman with cerebral palsy living in a group home in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She has made a video about her life to share with others. We interviewed her to learn more. First, a little bit about Val: She loves the color blue and horror movies, as well as Tinkerbell and monkeys! She even has the tattoos to prove it. She enjoys painting and acting. Val grew up in foster care and got the idea to make the video in order to reach out to others in the same situation. Her ideal audience would be kids in foster care and people with disabilities. She made the video along with her community support staff, and it took about a year to put together. She’s still adding to it. Since she’s still living her life, she doesn’t think it will ever be completely finished. Her goal with the video is to show kids in foster care that even if you are in a bad situation, you can overcome that situation. Valerie always wanted to be a scientist when she was little, and she still wants to do some scientific research in the future. She would also like to go back to school for special education, but the school is in another town. Right now the pandemic has slowed her plans, especially since she prefers in person classes to online programs. Her biggest issue with the pandemic has been boredom, but she enjoys working on painting with the help of her staff and taking arts classes on Zoom with the OT Circus Arts Connections program.