SELF ADVOCATES

Meet Rusty Hatchett

By Zach Elliott

Finding your voice can sometimes feel like the heaviest burden we’re forced to confront as people. That’s to say nothing of the effort that is required to become self-aware enough to realize that as much as our communities can lift us up, the only person who can always be in our corner is the one in the mirror.

Self-advocacy is even more important in the special needs community. No matter how much a person with special needs wants to strengthen their community, they must push for their own opportunities, too. Rusty Hatchett understands that responsibility. With help from his mom and friends, Rusty began to pursue self-advocacy and become more invested in the community. The different things they do and the people they interact with in the community make it all worthwhile.

“I just try to let parents see that people who have Down syndrome can do anything and everything they want – if given the right opportunities,” Rusty said.

Rusty has been working at U Indy Dining for 10 years. He also works at Kids Abilities and sometimes gets to assist with therapy sessions for the young clients. He loves to engage with them.

Rusty’s perspective is a great example of what self-advocacy in your community can mean to yourself and others. By trying to be considerate of yourself, you often become a more willing proponent of others.

Raised here in Indiana, Rusty enjoys sports, video games, and hanging out with his rescue cat, Momma Jane. His family also has a rescue dog named J.J. (short for Jumping Jellybean). Most notably, Rusty is big into WWE wrestling and wants to be a WWE wrestler himself one day.

Rusty does what he can here in Indiana and hopes others can also learn to be what he sees in a self advocate: “Someone who shares their beliefs and feelings with others and are willing to speak up for those beliefs and feelings,” he said.

No matter the community in question, self-advocacy benefits the community as much as the individual. For the special needs community, it gives people the opportunity to blossom and express themselves in ways they wouldn’t otherwise.

For anyone else interested in self-advocacy, Rusty has some pretty approachable advice: “It’s easy. Just get involved.”