SABE's CLOSE THE DOORS CAMPAIGN

Self Advocates Becoming Empowered, SABE, held a national conference last August, hosted by Oklahoma People First, in Tulsa. Roughly 850 people attended the four day affair which focused on how to support people while they are in institutions, and how to close institutions. Self advocacy leader and organizer Tia Nellis brought the crowd to its feet with her banquet speech "Campaign Freedom" which relased SABE's position statement on closing institutions:

We believe that all institutions, both private and public, should be closed. All people, regardless of the severity of their disabilities, should live in the community with the support they need. (SABE, 1995)

SABE is a coalition of state and local advocacy organizations, directed by regional representatives, and its purpose to ensoure people with disabilities are treated as equals and that they are given the same decisions, choices, rigghts responsibilities, chances to speak up to empower themselves, opportunities to make new friendships, and learn from mistakes as everyone else.

SABE will next meet in Anchorage Alaska in April of 1998. For more information on SABE, contact them at: PO Box 121211, Nashville, TN 37212-1211.

Thanks to the News & Notes November/December 1996 issue form the AAMR.