Home Helps Brittney Shine

Community Home Helps Brittney Shine

Brittney McGee, 17, has the typical enthusiasms of a high school senior. She can’t wait to get her class ring and walk across the stage to get her diploma.

Walking across the stage will mean more to Brittney than most abled-bodied persons can understand. Brittney, who has lived in a Volunteers of America community home for children with disabilities since 2001, has cerebral palsy and usually gets around in her wheelchair. But she is determined to receive her diploma on her own two legs, with the help of a walker.

Brittney wasn’t always so self-determined. Before coming to the community home, she lived with her parents who found caring for a child with a disability to be a difficult challenge. The staff of the community home worked to build her confidence and improve her school performance. Brittney blossomed.

Despite her disability, Brittney is mainstreamed in diploma-bound classes at Slidell High School. Brittney has adjusted to a new school because the hurricane closed the New Orleans school she previously attended. Independent and skilled at self-advocacy, Brittney does her class work on a computer, plans to attend University of New Orleans and aspires to own her home health care agency.