By Darcy Henton
The Edmonton Journal
March 9, 2009

In a lot of ways, Vanessa Grimard is a typical 18-year-old. She likes movies and pizza. She attends school, is a yellow belt in taekwondo, chats to her friends on her cellphone and is a huge fan of the television show Friends.

But Vanessa was born with Down syndrome, which has delayed her development and maturity and means she functions at a lower age level. It means she needs much more supervision than a typical teen and more help than others in learning basic life skills, such as travelling on city buses or making purchases in stores or ordering in restaurants.

There are community agencies that will help her learn the skills, provide her with job experience working with local employers and get her involved in daily social and recreational activities, but she needs provincial funding for them through a program called Persons with Developmental Disabilities or PDD.

Read the entire story on the website of the Edmonton Journal.