WorldWeDream Wants Your Inspirational Stories

Shubhankar Jain is Cupertino Patch's newest, and arguably most inspiring blogger to-date. Writing under the name of his nonprofit, WorldWeDream, Shubhankar is in the business of inspiration and support to special needs individuals, but he's looking for inspiration and support, too.

He's a 16-year-old junior at Cupertino High School with aspirations of changing the world, or at least changing the world's view of people like his younger brother, Paras, who has autism. Watching and growing up with a little brother with autism has given Shubhanker a different view of people with different, or limited, capabilities.

"I learned about his disabilities and the challenges he faces because of communication," Shubhankar says. "From there on, I learned about the disabilities his other classmates face as well. They are not a disability. We should focus on their abilities, not what they can't do."

It bothers Shubhankar that people with disabilities of any kind are viewed as limited or limiting to others. He's also learned that once someone like Paras is an adult the services that are out there to help Paras learn to be independent are where the greater limitations lie.

"The disabled aren't a hindrance to society. We want to integrate them," he says.

So through WorldWeDream he's going about creating that integration and closing the gap between youth and adult services for the special needs community by bringing awareness to the adult services deficit and helping special needs people create video resumes.

For free, WorldWeDream will help people with special needs create a video resume, what World We Dream envisions as the "future of job applications." The recordings are conducted in public places, then edited and posted online for the applicant to access through a username and password.

And right now, through the end of March WorldWeDream is holding a story challenge and handing out AMC Movie Tickets to the first 20 stories published on its site. They're looking for stories about positive experiences with a person with a disability; stories that will illustrate how a person with a disability can excel, inspire and motivate.

Read more about the story challenge and WorldWeDream on the first blog, and at www.worldwedream.org.

Editor's note: The WorldWeDream Local Voices blog will also have posts written by other members of the organization, or those who support it.