Society & Culture
Do For One was adapted from a well-established practice called Citizen Advocacy. In 1966, an academic researcher named Dr. Wolf Wolfensberger attended a national conference on protective services for the handicapped. It was there he became aware of how impersonal, rigid and limited the current system of human services was. Parents asked, "What happens to my handicapped child when I'm gone?" Moved by these needs, Dr. Wolfensberger conceived of Citizen Advocacy, a community based human services organization, and establishing the first office in Lincoln, Nebraska in 1970. In years since, offices have been created in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere in the United States. Tom Doody worked with Dr. Wolfensberger and was inspired to start a Citizen Advocacy program over 30 years ago. We invited Tom to spend a day with our leaders and staff late last year to share his experiences leading North Quabin Citizen Advocacy. This episode highlights the part of Tom's talk when sharing why and how Citizen Advocacy was created.