Minda Inc

Minda Incorporated, established in 1898, provides support to children and adults with intellectual disabilities in Adelaide, South Australia and is the largest non-Government disability support organisation in the state.^[1] It provides accommodation (in the community and at its Brighton campus), community support and employment.

The main facility is in the beachside suburb of Brighton, with another facility at what was Blackwood. The organisation was originally formed to provide support and lodging for children with intellectual disabilities. Now the society supports 1050 adults and children. Staff look after 340 people on campus as well as 204 people in the community, with more receiving other services.

History

Prior to 1898, children with intellectual disabilities were housed along with adults in the lunatic asylum at Parkside. After lobbying by concerned citizens, notably George Ash M.P., the government promised £500 towards a better quality institution specifically for children, provided that a similar amount was raised from donations. This target was achieved and in 1897 a home was purchased on Fullarton Road, Fullarton. The home was registered as the Home for Weakminded Children, but was called Minda, from a Kaurna word meaning 'place of shelter and protection'. The first children moved in during May 1898.

A larger property was bought at Brighton in 1909, and with further government support a new and larger home was erected. This was incorporated as Minda Home in September 1911. Further buildings and additions were built over the next two decades, and by 1934 Minda operated a farm and dormitory at Blackwood.

In 1980, 55 hectares of Craigburn Farm was donated for inclusion in Sturt Gorge Recreation Park as part of an agreement to allow subdivision of land south of the Sturt River in Flagstaff Hill.^[2] The major part of the balance of the farm at Blackwood was sold in the 1990s and forms the major part of Craigburn Farm, a major housing development. In 2007 the state government announced that the farm's dam would be included in an enlarged Sturt Gorge Recreation Park, building on the original donation and saving the dam from demolition.

Slang usage

The organisation is so well established in South Australia that the word "minda" has come to be used as an offensive slang term for a person with an intellectual disability, and as an insult, but only in that particular State.^[3]

References

1. ↑ "Workers on Trak as Minister opens Minda's $1m furniture factory". Federal Government. 23 February 2005. 
2. ↑ Hon Paul Holloway MLC (Press release) (31 December 2007). "News: Reprieve for Minda Farm Dam". Government of South Australia. Retrieved 14 March 2008. 
3. ↑ Kate Strohm, (2002), Siblings: Brothers and Sisters of Children with Special Needs, Wakefield Press, Kent Town, p. 29 ISBN 978-1-86254-580-9

External links

• The Minda Inc website
• SA Link-up
• History of Disability in South Australia: Minda Inc at the Disability Information Resource Centre of South Australia