Enduring Values
The Trust’s original values are as relevant today as ever, says
founder Norman Thody.
The inspiration to start The Disabilities Trust came from my son
Graham. In 1979 Graham was 19. Graham has a disability and like lots of parents
of disabled children we were wondering what sort of life he would face as he
grew into an adult.
Residential centres in the 1970s were institutional and often
soulless places. I remember going to visit one in Godalming in an old prisoner
of war camp. Graham took one look and said: ‘Whatever you do don’t send me there.’
I wrote to every local newspaper in East and West Sussex and asked
them to publish a personal letter from me requesting disabled people or their
relatives to get in touch with me if they felt a new project offering independence
to people with disabilities was badly needed. Dozens of letters flowed in.
When we started the Disabled Housing Trust, as it was then called,
we had no staff and no money. Our first major donation came from Mrs Ernest
Kleinwort, who went on to help us open our first unit, Ernest Kleinwort Court.
We all wanted to create a different kind of service. Whenever the Trust has
created something new it’s always been innovative and modern, designed to meet
a real need.
In many ways we were blazing new trails and that sometimes brought
us into conflict with other people and other partners. But demand for our services
far exceeded supply, so we knew we were doing something right.
We were also the first charity to have Service Users on the Board
of Trustees. It took two years of arguing with the Charity Commission but we
fought because it was the right thing to do.
Fast growth brought its own challenges – including financial problems
that temporarily threatened to derail us in 1992. But we’ve remained ahead of
the curve, anticipating trends and looking at the whole continuum of care. I
have no doubt that will continue.
Norman Thody founded the Trust in 1979 with Stephen Love and
Barbara Besant Hutchins. He was Chief Executive until 1999.
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