‘Making a Home’ is a book exploring the author’s idea, struggles and determination to create an alternative home for young disabled people who were finding themselves having to live in care homes for elderly people. Jen Powley, who herself has Multiple Sclerosis, explores the current reality of many young disabled people in Canada (the main focus is Nova Scotia) who end up in nursing homes. She looks at how there are better solutions out there that provide dignity and allow people to live their lives how they want to
on their own terms. She herself creates a home that uses a shared attendant service where people can live together in a flatshare type situation. This is far from straight forward though and she shares with the reader the obstacles along the way to make this happen.

I was really interested to read this book as someone who has had to consider going into a care/nursing home due to disability despite being young. While not living in Canada the number of similarities of the obstacles of getting care and support to live the life you want is very similar. Her solution was very thought provoking as it does make you stop and wonder if this was to be replicated what a difference it could make. I found it particularly interesting to read, bureaucracy aside, of some of the challenges of adjusting from institutional living to a home again and also having to change from someone who employs others to also the role of a housemate.

A brilliant book for those involved in disability activism and rights, social and care work and also for disabled people too, to give hope that there are alternative solutions out there that hopefully will become possible everywhere.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

3.5/5

Thank you Netgalley and publisher for providing me the e-ARC.

Making a Home is Jen Powley's experience in living with body that can't functional like a normal able-bodied person. She described how hard is it to live and found a home in general or nursing home that have the perfect requirement for her or people that have same living condition as her. Jen, provide so many data that support the importance of making a home that accessible and comfortable for the community in where she lives.

I like how informative this book is.

This was an enlightening and informative book to read about a serious issue that I don't always think about, and about the hard work that went into helping the disabled community.

I enjoyed how well-researched this book was, and enjoyed the personal anecdotes added throughout the book. I particularly enjoy narrative nonfiction books so I found the last few chapters a lot more enjoyable than the rest of the book where it is more statistics and research heavy. While they were necessary and important, it just became a bore to read at times and I had to re-read some sections just to make sure I understood everything. Overall, it wasn't a very bingeable book.

I am not familiar with Powley's other books or her activism work, but I am glad that I was introduced to it. While this focuses on issues in Canada, particularly Nova Scotia, I can see this work being an inspiration and reference for other disability activists in the U.S.

My final thoughts are: This book isn't my particular cup of tea when it comes to nonfiction work and I wasn't a huge fan of the writing style. However, I'm still glad that I read it. It did the job of addressing a social justice and political issue, and I loved seeing Powley work to solve the issue. I found myself rooting for her at the end of the book, not just in her activism, but in life overall.

Making a home explains the difficulties that people with disabilities face on a daily basis especially those with a severe disability. These people are most often than not dependent on aids to help with their daily activities, this can be costly meaning that many young people end up moving into institutions with people from an older generation.

In this book the author advocates for a pilot program to prevent young people having to move into these institutions by sharing their aids with "roommates" of a similar ages and similar needs.

The book was informative and well written. I liked how the author not only gave her perception of her situation, but also interacted with other people for their opinion.