DD Council names recipients of Champion Awards
Submitted by Shelley Joyce on Mon, 03/19/2007 - 10:39am.
Quite a crowd gathered at the Barbara Roberts Human Services Building on March 12 to celebrate Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month, an annual event sponsored by the Oregon Council on Developmental Disabilities.
Dr. Bruce Goldberg, DHS Director, read a proclamation from the Governor that echoed . the theme of this year’s celebration: “Every Child Deserves a Family Home.”
The Council presented two individuals with Developmental Disabilities Champion Awards for policy making and advocacy. Representative Sara Gelser received the policy maker’s award and Sharon Lewis received the advocate’s award.
Representative Gelser was recognized for her strong creative leadership in shaping public policy to address the critical needs of children and adults with developmental disabilities and their families. As a freshman legislator, she has quickly established herself as an effective and respected leader on important disability issues such as in-home services for medically-involved children and access to Medicaid for middle-income families of children with developmental disabilities.
Sharon Lewis was recognized for her tireless efforts on behalf of people with developmental disabilities, families and particularly, young children with developmental disabilities. She has been a major force in the creation of MPAC, the Multnomah Parent Action Committee; FACT the Family Action Coalition Team; Disability Compass, a web based information and referral system sponsored by Disability Navigators; and The GO! Project, a grassroots organizing project of the Developmental Disabilities Coalition of Oregon. She has also been instrumental in making Oregon’s Partners in Policymaking one of the best disability training programs in the country. On the national level, she is the sole recipient of the 2007 Joseph P. Kennedy Policy Fellows award. The fellowship brings recipients to Washington D.C. to work for a year at the national level.
A new developmental disabilities awareness poster, co-produced by the Council and The Arc of Oregon was unveiled during the ceremony. The poster reads: “It doesn’t take a wizard to know there’s no place like home for kids with disabilities.” Free copies of the poster are available through the Council and The Arc.
The program also included a rededication of a statue that once stood on the grounds of the Fairview Training Center. The inscription on the statue’s pedestal reads:
This exhibit is dedicated to the more than 9,100 children and adults who lived at Fairview Training Center (1908-2000), Oregon's largest institution for people with developmental disabilities.
"To those who suffered, I say: The people of Oregon are sorry. Our hearts are heavy for the pain you endured. And, it is in honor of you that I declare December 10 hereafter to be Human Rights Day in Oregon.”
Governor John A. Kitzhaber, December 2, 2002,
on the occasion of a state apology for inhumane
treatment and involuntary sterilizations of Oregonians
in state institutions.
Dr. Bruce Goldberg, DHS Director, read a proclamation from the Governor that echoed . the theme of this year’s celebration: “Every Child Deserves a Family Home.”
The Council presented two individuals with Developmental Disabilities Champion Awards for policy making and advocacy. Representative Sara Gelser received the policy maker’s award and Sharon Lewis received the advocate’s award.
Representative Gelser was recognized for her strong creative leadership in shaping public policy to address the critical needs of children and adults with developmental disabilities and their families. As a freshman legislator, she has quickly established herself as an effective and respected leader on important disability issues such as in-home services for medically-involved children and access to Medicaid for middle-income families of children with developmental disabilities.
Sharon Lewis was recognized for her tireless efforts on behalf of people with developmental disabilities, families and particularly, young children with developmental disabilities. She has been a major force in the creation of MPAC, the Multnomah Parent Action Committee; FACT the Family Action Coalition Team; Disability Compass, a web based information and referral system sponsored by Disability Navigators; and The GO! Project, a grassroots organizing project of the Developmental Disabilities Coalition of Oregon. She has also been instrumental in making Oregon’s Partners in Policymaking one of the best disability training programs in the country. On the national level, she is the sole recipient of the 2007 Joseph P. Kennedy Policy Fellows award. The fellowship brings recipients to Washington D.C. to work for a year at the national level.
A new developmental disabilities awareness poster, co-produced by the Council and The Arc of Oregon was unveiled during the ceremony. The poster reads: “It doesn’t take a wizard to know there’s no place like home for kids with disabilities.” Free copies of the poster are available through the Council and The Arc.
The program also included a rededication of a statue that once stood on the grounds of the Fairview Training Center. The inscription on the statue’s pedestal reads:
This exhibit is dedicated to the more than 9,100 children and adults who lived at Fairview Training Center (1908-2000), Oregon's largest institution for people with developmental disabilities.
"To those who suffered, I say: The people of Oregon are sorry. Our hearts are heavy for the pain you endured. And, it is in honor of you that I declare December 10 hereafter to be Human Rights Day in Oregon.”
Governor John A. Kitzhaber, December 2, 2002,
on the occasion of a state apology for inhumane
treatment and involuntary sterilizations of Oregonians
in state institutions.
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