Today we’d like to introduce you to Ezekiel-bethany Goff
Hi Ezekiel-Bethany, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I’ve never had a life that wasn’t disabled, but I’ve had a life that didn’t know it was disabled. The symptoms from my disabilities started when I was a toddler, but I didn’t have the ability to communicate about them or the knowledge that what I was experiencing was not the norm until I was in my 20s, so that’s when most of them were diagnosed. This is a facet of my autism, and it means that I grew up with big dreams, which can be true for disabled people, too. However, I also grew up with the idea that if I tried hard enough, I could do anything I wanted, which is patently false. My disabilities limit me, and that’s okay. I’ve fought for the right to have limitations after not having knowledge, support, or understanding of my disabilities growing up.
Nowadays, I don’t work, and I don’t live independently. Not knowing I was disabled, I got a lot of flack when I tried to move out truly on my own around age 19 and couldn’t handle it. I couldn’t hold down a job, and usually I was being let go for what I can see now are facets of my autism, mental illness, or progressive inability to walk. I also need help with things like showering, dressing, cleaning my house, and just having the energy and executive functioning to do things at home, plus the regulation to do things in the community.
But that doesn’t stop me from trying to realize some of those childhood dreams. I volunteer with a grassroots organization providing peer-support alternatives to the medical industrial complex, I offer my ESL curriculum that I developed over the years of teaching IELTS test prep for 50% off to asylum-seekers and refugees, and I do language exchange with speakers of Egyptian Arabic.
I’m also fundraising to get a service dog for myself, to grant me more independence, freedom, and presence in my own life. I’m having an event April 5, 2025 at North Park in Seven Hills, Ohio to raise money for this- a Disability-Inclusive Family Fun Day. I’m also collecting shoes from now through the end of that event, including at that event, in partnership with the organization Funds2Orgs. The shoes go to microenterprise partners of Funds2Orgs in developing nations, and Funds2Orgs pays me per pound of shoes collected towards my service dog. Visit https://zekesservicedogfun.wixsite.com/zekesfundraiser to see our upcoming events, donate, or learn more about me.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
My disabilities definitely have been barriers to getting to where I am today, on disability, selling my ESL curriculum to raise money for my service dog, fundraising, volunteering based on my own capacity, and taking care of myself even when people judge me for it. There have also been external barriers, including abuse from caregivers, moving far away from all of my support, my step-dad’s suicide, being assaulted, spending some time homeless and couch surfing with people I didn’t know well when I really struggle with change and new environments from my autism, living in a disability group home for a few years, etc.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Mostly, I’m doing different fundraising campaigns to raise money for my service dog. I also volunteer virtually with HOLD: A Peer Support Coalition and other causes that come up. But overall, I am disabled, There are 2-week periods at a time that see me bed-bound, and I am also mostly home-bound. I do the best I can to make a difference from where I am, and right now, that involves trying to help myself, as well, by raising money for a service dog. I also take dance classes at The School of Dancing wheels in my wheelchair and play flute in The Cleveland Pride Band.
Any big plans?
I should be getting my service dog prospect from Mission Ready Retrievers this summer, and then he’ll spend the next 2ish years training with me and Sits n Wiggles Service Dog Training n Behavior Consulting. Partway through his training, he’ll start working for me as a full-time service dog. This is the biggest goal I am working towards right now.
Pricing:
- IELTS Test Prep Curriculum $15-$30 by test section
- Undergraduate Essay Editing- $20+
- IELTS Writing Score and Feedback $30+
- IELTS Speaking Score $20+
- Donations- Any Amount Appreciated
Contact Info:
- Website: https://zekesservicedogfun.wixsite.com/zekesfundraiser
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zekes_service_dog_fundraiser/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61563619700165
- Other: https://ko-fi.com/esl_for_a_service_dog
