Why Support for Community Living Huntsville Matters: A Family’s Story
Jennifer Jerrett, event coordinator for Huntsville’s Got Talent 2025 and Community Engagement Specialist for Community Living Huntsville, tells the audience that inclusion and acceptance are the foundation of a community where everyone belongs. Photos by Community Living Huntsville.
What does inclusion mean?
Ashley Vowels, co-owner of Tall Trees Muskoka, stepped up to the podium on the Algonquin Theatre stage, as a guest speaker during Huntsville’s Got Talent 2025, to share what it means for her, her husband and co-businessowner, Randy, and their son, Axel.
“Axel is autistic, a fact we are proud to share,” said Vowels. “Autism isn’t a tragedy. This is our child. We encourage his strengths, celebrate his quirks, and improve on his weaknesses, the same way you would with any child.”
She noted, though, that everyone, no matter who they are, needs help sometimes.
“This help can come in different ways – financial, physical, emotional, and even educational. For this, Community Living is there,” said Vowels. “Community Living is about advocacy, inclusion, and support for those in the community who are affected by a developmental disability.”
Vowels said that was why she and Randy were proud to have Tall Trees Muskoka support Community Living Huntsville as its Platinum Signature Event Partner in 2024-2025. Their sponsorship made the not-for-profit signature fundraisers, like Huntsville’s Got Talent, possible.
“When a flower doesn’t bloom, you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower,” she said. “Community Living is the gardener, tending and fostering growth for many people in many different ways.”
Inclusion, said Vowels, is sometimes taken for granted.
Ashley Vowels shares her family’s story of inclusion with the audience at Huntsville’s Got Talent 2025.
“I was dropping Axel off at school, and I watched as he ran into the playground, greeted by his classmates, and ran off with a group of kids playing their own version of tag,” she said. “To many parents, this is such an ordinary thing to witness, and you wouldn’t give it a second thought, but I sat there and cried – happy tears this time.”
Her son had not just joined in – he was also welcomed, valued, and authentically included by his classmates and friends.
“Randy and I are so blessed to celebrate all these little things that not all parents would,” she told the audience. “Your presence and support tonight are going to help make all those little things – and big things – possible for parents, children, and adults within this wonderful community.”
Everyone, she added, had something of value to contribute and everyone had the right to belong.
“Diversity is a fact, but inclusion is a choice we are responsible to make every day,” she said. “As a community, we have to embrace and not just tolerate diversity.”
Jennifer Jerrett, event organizer and Community Engagement Specialist for Community Living Huntsville, also told the audience that authentic inclusion remained a challenge for people with developmental disabilities. “Barriers like poverty, housing insecurity, unemployment, and harmful stereotypes continue to isolate and marginalize,” said Jerrett.
She noted that, in Ontario, people with developmental disabilities faced wait times for affordable housing that were up to 10 times longer than average. “Can you imagine waiting 40 to 100 years for affordable housing?” she asked.
Community Living Huntsville took action with its Be an Inclusive Landlord initiative, Transitional Housing services for unhoused adults with developmental disabilities supported by the organization, and one-time emergency rent subsidies for people and families it serves who are at risk of homelessness.
She added, though, that the organization could not do it alone. Financial support and advocacy from the community was needed.
“Inclusion and acceptance are not just goals to strive for – they are the foundations of a world where everyone belongs,” said Jerrett. “Together, we are building that world.”
She invited those interested to donate to support housing inclusion in our community.
Community Living Huntsville is a not-for-profit, registered charity that supports and advocates alongside more than 300 people with developmental disabilities, and their families, to live, work, and play in unique and purposeful ways in North Muskoka. Learn more at clhuntsville.ca. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Linkedin.
