70 Years of Doing the Impossible

The Developmental Disabilities Association's Executive Director Alanna Hendren talks about the association's 70th anniversary, where the organization has been, and where it's headed in the 21st century. A staunch advocate for people with developmental disabilities, Alanna Hendren has been involved in this sector for over 40 years.

 

TRANSCRIPT

70 Years of Doing the Impossible

 

00:05 Hello again, welcome to another episode of DDA's Encouraging Abilities podcast. I am your host, DDA's Communications Manager, Evan Kelly. Now this is a special podcast because we are focusing on Developmental Disabilities Association's 70th Anniversary.

00:20 So for 70 years, and from a very humble start, DDA has been advocating, supporting, and transforming the lives of people with developmental disabilities. So since 1952 to 2022, I should say, we in the organization's pioneers have been moving mountains, transforming the social and political landscape for some of society's most vulnerable people here in BC and even across Canada. I'll try to offer the abridged version to listeners. Now DDA began when a woman by the name of B. Purdy

00:50 B birth to a boy who had Down syndrome in the late 30s. Conventional wisdom of the time would be to have him live his life in an institution. So B pretty went against that thinking and kept him at home in the community where he belonged. She would gather about a dozen other families and start educating their children in a church basement here in Vancouver. Now through lobbying the provincial government they gained funding to open the first publicly funded special needs school in Canada. That was just one of many innovations.

01:20 big fast forward to here in 2022 where DDA has over 500 staff and supports about 2,000 people and their families every year. We have numerous programs from early intervention and infant development to robust employment programs and many fun and educational programs for families in Richmond and Vancouver. So joining me today is our very own executive director Alana Hendron. Alana has been a leader of the developmental disabilities field for over

01:50 She received commendations for her contributions to the downsizing of institutions in BC by developing community services and promoting inclusion. As Executive Director of DDA for the last 25 years, she has worked with board members and staff teams to build a strong financial foundation and innovative quality support for individuals with developmental disabilities and their families.

02:16 So thank you for joining us. Now 70 years, what do you think about when you hear that number? Well, I think 70 years is just fantastic. And certainly the progress that we've seen over that 70 years has been phenomenal. Our goal is to continue to drive it forward and continue to advocate for inclusion for everybody, not just people with developmental disabilities, but everybody.

02:45 uh... because we know that in the in an inclusive world everybody wins you've been in this uh... field for forty years what made you decide to get into this line of work well i always had this drive to help people and i wish i had a drive to make money or do other things but i always wanted to help people so when i finished university i got a degree in psychology

03:11 and realized that a lot of people didn't want my help. There's a lot of people who have a lot of problems, but they don't really care. So I worked with people who had substance abuse disorders before I worked at Pearson Hospital. And when I worked at Pearson Hospital, what I found was that the folks who lived there loved attention, they really appreciated any help.

03:40 Sometimes they appreciated somebody just saying good morning to them. So I realized that people with disabilities were a group that were in the position they were in thro