Impact Story: Meet Lawrence
Meet Lawrence! Lawrence has received services from MRI for the past 16 years. Everyone who has ever interacted with or heard Lawrence’s story will tell you he has overcome a life-time’s worth of obstacles and has so much to be proud of. MRI is so happy and proud to share Lawrence’s story of becoming independent and living on his own!
When asked about Lawrence, Dominic, Lawrence’s Case Manager, who was his CDS group leader at the time in 2009, shared that when he was born, him and his twin sister were put into the foster care system. Lawrence only knew his twin for a year before they were separated. Growing up not knowing his family created a bitterness inside of Lawrence that made him very weary and distrusting of people. He has had a life-long dream of living independently, however, his attitude was the number one obstacle blocking him from accomplishing his dream.
Nonetheless, as time went on MRI staff, like Dominic, continued to show him love, care, and support that eventually broke down the walls of distrust and bitterness surrounding him. Once he realized that he was loved, valued, and supported, he gained the confidence and ability to interact and communicate with the people who wanted to help make his dreams come true. We asked Lawrence what motivated him to become independent and he told us that he wasn’t thriving in an environment where he lived with others and realized he would be much happier living on his own. In order to equip Lawrence with the tools needed to successfully live on his own, he was coached and took classes at MRI that taught him household skills, health maintenance, and money management. With the support of his MRI staff, Lawrence was able to take small steps each year towards accomplishing his goal.
Lawrence lived in our Main Street group home for 10 years before moving into an apartment of his own in 2020.
We were told that there was concern that Lawrence would have trouble keeping up with cleaning based on his cleaning habits in the group home. However, when we visited him in his apartment it was immaculate, and yet he was still concerned that it wasn’t clean enough! Likewise, Lawrence had his own concerns about living on his own. At some point earlier in his life he was traumatized by a house fire that electrocuted his brother, and was fearful that something similar would happen in his apartment. In order to overcome this obstacle, he began taking cooking and safety group classes. At first he was quiet and unwilling to participate in class, but now he is interacting and comfortable learning to cook new things. Lastly, being independent and responsible for his own place has taught Lawrence money discipline like the importance of saving, and the difference between wants and needs. Before he lived on his own, he struggled with controlling his spending urges but now he has a savings and his own debit card. Not only is he saving money, but he’s saving money to learn more about and to reconnect with his family.
“My dream is to become my own guardian and to move to Chicago to be with my family.” -Lawrence
While visiting him, Lawrence also told us that his dream is to become his own guardian and to move to Chicago. Over the past few years, he has gathered information about his family with the help of his Direct Support Professional staff member, Cathy. He even got to go to Chicago with her and meet his family for the first time. Dominic also played a large role by providing him support and building his self-esteem by reminding him that he is valuable and worthy of knowing his family. While discovering his family, he became aware that he had another sister who passed away due to an illness. To honor her, Lawrence saved money to be able to get a tattoo on his arm in remembrance of her. He also has a tattoo of his parents! Furthermore, he had recently purchased his mother, father, and sister’s death certificates and is now looking into his parent’s marriage license. Family is tremendously important to Lawrence, and with the help of MRI staff, he has reconnected with his family and is learning as much as he can about them.
It is easy to see how driven Lawrence is, he has not let any of life’s obstacles or burdens keep him from his goals and dreams. Congratulations on becoming independent, Lawrence!
Lawrence wanted to give a special thanks to the many people who helped him get to where he is today. His Case Manager, Dominic, Tonya, who used to work at MRI as the music teacher who really motivated him, his guardian Cathy Sturm, Prairieland staff who helped him along his journey, as well as Cindy Burns and Cathy Davis who advocated for him. He also wanted to thank Jill Blue for always motivating him to keep up his hygiene.
