Empowering Ability Podcast

I'm honored to bring you this conversation I recorded with Joe Clayton. Joe is a survivor of Rideau Regional Center; an institution closed in Smith Falls, Ontario. "We as the people, disabilities, we cry just like everybody else. We laugh like everybody else. We are human beings, just like everybody else. And like I said before, we just want the world to know we are not monsters who got out of institutions. We are human beings, and we need to be respected and to be loved. And we don't need to be treated like babies. We need to be treated like a human being and we... Yeah, that's it." - Joe Clayton While being institutionalized as a child, Joe experienced several traumas and injustices and traumatic experiences which he shares with us in this podcast episode. Joe also shares his life after being institutionalized, and through his faith, he found forgiveness and the courage to live life. Joe is an indigenous man and a creative who expresses his creativity through photography and art. Joe now lives wit