The International Year of the Disabled in 1981 was an event with a focus on people with disabilities. During this year our family became involved at a local level through the Sherbrooke Shire. Sherbrooke had a good track record of involving people in community issues and they organised a ‘special day’ (I have problems with the word special) for people with disabilities, their families and support people. Our son Adam was 9 years old at the time. He had Tuberous Schlerosis Complex, was non-verbal and had communication and cognitive difficulties.

Family Forum on disabilty in Sherbrooke 1981

The day was informative and it was rewarding to participate in discussions with other local families. We decided to create a group that would have the ability to implement change within the Shire. My wife Peta and I put our hands up to assist with the organisation of the group, which became known as The Chandler Project. A non-profit community organisation with legal status, members and a management board. This decision was to have a major impact on our family at the time and well into our future. Now, I don’t want to get caught up with everything that occurred within this group, as it was a long, complex and personal process. The number of parents involved meant we had to have common ground to begin with. One that would enable all of us to see our needs met and would be based locally. Everyone living in the Shire at the time had to travel well outside its boundaries for educational and many other services.

In 1981 Adam was attending a Day Training Centre 20 kilometres away from his community at Minibah in Pakenham. At the time Minibah was the best of three centres equi-distant from our home. Since he was two and a half years old Adam would leave home at 7.15 in the morning and travel on a small bus for the next one to two hours to the centre. He would return home with another long bus trip and arrive at around 5.00pm. So for us, getting him closer to home where his daily needs could be met was a priority.

It’s important that local people understood what the Chandler Project was and what we could achieve. We were after all only a small community group with limited resources, but we had a bucket load of ideas. Several of our ideas were threatening to some parents who saw us as wanting to close down centres and put their children into mainstream options in a bid to ‘normalise’ them. We were about choice, and we wanted to support everyone where possible. The philosophy of Chandler was that everyone had the right to live and remain in his or her own area with adequate support through community-based services. In the initial years the Project focused on a number of programs with the view that eventually they should be taken over by Local, State or Federal Governments. We were of the belief that if a facility our children could use already existed in the community there was no need to duplicate it. Rather, resources needed to be allocated so individuals with a disability could attend together with their neighbours and friends. We started several programs over the next few years.

Providing silkscreen printing skills and fundraising activity

An early intervention program ran in a local community house at South Belgrave and supported up to fifteen young children under the ages of five. We supplied support staff including a teacher with support funding from philanthropic trusts and Government. Local support groups supplied us with equipment including a spa and outside play equipment. Far too many groups to mention but the support just kept coming. This program was so successful that after four to five years the Shire of Sherbrooke approached us for permission to start an early education program as part of the Patch Primary School. We were thrilled, as this sat comfortably with our philosophy. A number of the children attending the initial program were now school age. They now had different needs so it seemed appropriate that Government take on the early intervention role anyway.

Whilst the early intervention program was running we also ran a school support group, working with several other groups involved with disability through to top levels of Government. We met with several Education Ministers during this time. Joan Kirner, one of several Education Ministers who later on become Premier of Victoria was extremely supportive. We had a number of meetings with her during the 1980’s. When we were not meeting Government, members of our group worked as advocates for parents who wanted their children to attend their local State Schools. This meant numerous meetings with parents at schools in problem solving with teachers and other professionals. It was an ongoing collaborative process and one that left us all exhausted. The outcome for Adam was he was able to leave the Centre in 1984 and attend his local Primary School together with his sister. He moved on to Emerald Secondary College and completed his VCE over four years at the age of twenty, achieving a tertiary entry score of 68. A far cry from what would have been achieved had he remained at the centre.

©  Leslie Cope