Hi my name is George Ayer, and I am the founder of St. Therese's Vision for Disability Giftedness. Behind the formation of this project lies my own story and a lifetime of trials and obstacles, support and inspiration, and plenty of God’s good grace.

From the time I was young, my mom was my primary advocate, fighting for me to succeed academically and socially with my learning disability. Things were not easy. I jumped from one special education environment to another. I had a hard time fitting in with my peers. I struggled with my self-esteem and with bullying. Later on, as a teenager and young adult, I struggled with depression and anxiety, and I went back and forth between having faith in Jesus as my Lord and Savior to struggling with agnosticism/atheism, but my mom never gave up on me. In time, I made a conversion to the fullness of the Catholic Faith, I went on to University, and as an adult I was eventually diagnosed with a Non-Verbal Learning Disability. Several years later, a tragic heart attack lead to my mother’s death, and I was overcome with grief. A new chapter was beginning in my life, and it would lead me to discover my call to help others with disabilities. I did not know it then, but this was where my adventure took off.

Mom had been a teacher, and her untimely death came in the midst of her teaching career. I connected with her school to grieve, and when I sought to follow her into the teaching profession, it was a tremendous consolation to have support from the school community where she had taught. Unfortunately, when I reached teachers college I experienced such prejudice that I was forced to fight for advocacy, not only for my own disability but also for those of others. During this time I also began to seek God’s Will for my life more sincerely and thoroughly.

Shortly after my experience with the teacher’s college, I accepted a government contract. The nature of the work put me in some uncomfortable positions. Worst of all, I eventually found myself required to be an agent of prejudice towards a child, and one who, like me, had a Non-Verbal Learning Disability. Imagine: what could be more demoralizing than being asked to make life harder for this child? Someone with the same type of disability I have? And so shortly after I had had to fight for my own rights as a person with a disability. This was the last straw. I took a stand, and in taking that stand I felt a call from God to continue the fight for people with disabilities. I was led to the Developmental Services Worker program which has lead me to my current position as a supply educational assistant helping children and adolescents with disabilities.

In the final semester of my DSW program, which consisted entirely of a placement working with kids in an elementary school, a miracle happened that really turned things around. I was given the opportunity to work with a boy with a Non-Verbal Learning Disability. I had a chance to make a positive impact in the life of someone with the same exceptionality as me. It hit me that, had I not taken a stand during the government contract, this never would have happened. God was restoring me and confirming my mission by giving me this opportunity. Indeed, the boy made tremendous academic strides that semester. As a result, his teacher gave me a grade of 100 percent for my placement semester. God was at work. In that same semester, at a Holy Thursday Mass during the washing of the feet, God revealed to me that He was calling me to start something new for people with disabilities.

It is now the case, one year later that I begin this project. St. Therese's Vision for Disability Giftedness will have a special focus on social disabilities such as Non-Verbal Learning Disability, ADHD, and autism/Asperger’s Syndrome. Mental health challenges will be at the forefront of our outreach for people in all situation.s The project will also include visible disabilities such as cerebral palsy, blindness or near sightedness. At this point we are not formally a lay apostolate, I do have the encouragement of my local bishop and it is our aim that this project equally include laity who are single and married, religious and priests.

St. Therese of Lisieux's legacy continues to help us see God working in each little gift and challenge of our lives so that we can offer everything to God no matter how weak or insignificant we may feel or how effective we perceive our actions may be. We would like to cultivate a mentality in our Church community where we see Jesus more actively at work particularly in those of us with all kinds of disabilities and mental health challenges. We will thus be daily encouraged to boldly trust Jesus that we can become all God calls us to be and achieve sainthood. Thus people in the Church with disabilities and mental health issues can no longer be seen as objects of pity, but rather a new focus in our ministries will be encouraged that cultivates the giftedness of each person. This can be seen as part of the New Evangelization that we have been called to in the Church. This new focus will help each persons challenges which often go undetected, unaddressed or misunderstood be properly accommodated so that they can better engage in the mission of the Church and discipleship. May the Holy Spirit, who formed Jesus in His Mother Mary, lead and guide our apostolate so that all of us with disabilities and mental health issues may be formed into an army of apostles who know we are loved as Our Father’s beloved sons and daughters.