History of People First
People First is part of the
self-advocacy movement. The movement
began in Sweden in 1968 when a Swedish parent’s organization for
children with developmental disabilities held a meeting. The
organization had the motto, “We speak for them,” meaning parents
speaking for their children. The people at the meeting decided they
wanted to speak for themselves and made a list of changes they wanted
made to their services.
Over the next five years meetings like
this took place in England and Canada. In November of 1973 the British
Columbia Arc sponsored the first convention for the “mentally
handicapped” in North America. The convention had for its
theme “May We Have A Choice”. Two staff workers and three residents
from the Fairview Hospital and Training Center in Salem, Oregon
attended this convention. They came back to Oregon excited about the
possibility of people with developmental disabilities speaking for
themselves and organizing a similar convention.
The Canadian convention had been organized by professionals and the
people from Oregon dreamed of a convention that was planned by people
with disabilities, with assistance from advisors only when needed.
On January 8, 1974, the People First
movement began in Salem,
Oregon, with the purpose of organizing a convention where people with
developmental disabilities could speak for themselves and share ideas,
friendship and information. In the course of planning the convention,
the small group of planners decided they needed a name for themselves.
A number of suggestions had been made when someone said, “I’m tired of
being called retarded – we are people first.” The name People First was
chosen and the People First self-advocacy movement began. The first
People First Convention was held in Oregon in October 1974 and 560
people attended. From this convention the idea of self-advocacy began
to grow and spread. Within five years, Oregon had 1000 People First
members, Nebraska, Washington and Kansas had growing memberships and
people from 42 other states were asking for assistance to start their
own groups.
In 1984 the first International Self
Advocacy Leadership Conference
was held in Tacoma, Washington. Since then, international conferences
have been held in London, England (1988), Toronto, Canada (1993),
Anchorage, Alaska (1998) and Northampton, England (2001).
Today, People First and the
self-advocacy movement has grown into an
international movement in 43 countries, with an estimated 17,000
members or more. In the United States alone, there are estimated to be
well over 800 self-advocacy groups. Some of these are supported by
local or state organizations, but many others are independent. In some
states local groups have banded together and have formed statewide
organizations. A national organization, Self-Advocates Becoming
Empowered, was formed in September 1991.
Many of these groups call themselves
People First but others have different names like Speaking
for Ourselves, United Together,
or Advocates in Action.
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