A $30 million gift spurs Canadian collaboration in disability care
By Louise Kinross
A $30 million donation to 11 disability groups across Canada was announced yesterday by The Slaight Family Foundation on International Day of Persons with Disabilities.
The landmark investment over five years will fund a partnership of national and regional disability organizations, led by Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Foundation, which received $10.5 million, and Rick Hansen Foundation, which received $10 million.
“The impact of disability exclusion is significant, not just on people with disabilities and their families, but on our culture and economy as well," says Gary Slaight, president and CEO of The Slaight Family Foundation. “Connecting and expanding programs and innovations from organizations dedicated to disability care and awareness will create an umbrella of support across Canada, while dismantling stigma and creating a more inclusive society for us all.”
Holland Bloorview will use its funds to develop and share technology, including the brain-computer interface, and make its inclusive arts, music and robotics programs available to new partners, so more children across the country can benefit.
It will also train more developmental pediatricians, who are specialists in childhood disability. “There are about 850,000 kids in Canada who have a disability, but we only have about 150 developmental pediatricians, so the need is definitely there for that training,” says Taylor Lindsay-Noel (photo above), a former inpatient at Holland Bloorview who is a member of its foundation’s board of directors. Lindsay-Noel was a gymnast preparing to compete for Canada in the 2012 Olympics when she broke her neck in 2008 during a dismount.
Rick Hansen told CTV News his foundation, based in Richmond, B.C., will use the funds for “an accessibility training and accreditation program for the built environment.” It will be “targeted to architects, engineers, city planners, developers, owners of buildings, regulators and advocates," Hansen says. "We want them to have the same level of competency about how to build buildings that work for people with multiple levels of disability.”
The Canadian Woman’s Foundation will use its $1 million donation to work with DAWN Canada to fund grassroots programs across the country that support disabled women and gender-diverse people who are at greater risk of violence.
Meanwhile, Inclusion Canada plans to use its $1 million gift to create an inclusive housing assessment tool for developers, people with disabilities, funders and community groups. “Every person with an intellectual disability deserves the opportunity to have a home of their own in their community—not in segregated institutions or congregated settings,” says Moira Wilson, president of Inclusion Canada.
Read more about all of the Slaight donation recipients.
The donation “is about bringing 11 organizations who’ve never collaborated before together and ensuring that the face of disability is changed in Canada,” says Sandra Hawken, president of Holland Bloorview's foundation. “Our hope is that this gift will create a conversation of inclusion that will impact all Canadians.”
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