REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE LAUNCH OF THE VOLUNTEER PROGRAMME PART OF REHABCARE’S 10TH ANN.
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE LAUNCH OF THE VOLUNTEER PROGRAMME AS PART OF REHABCARE’S TENTH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATIONS
Dia dhíbh ar maidin,
Tá an-áthas orm bheith anseo libh inniu agus muid ag céiliúradh an ócáid mhór seo.
Good morning everybody,
I am delighted to be here this morning to mark this important milestone in the history of RehabCare. My thanks to your Chief Executive, Angela Kerins, for her kind invitation to celebrate this occasion with everyone here, and to each of you for that warm welcome.
To begin with, can I wish RehabCare heartfelt congratulations on reaching your tenth birthday. It has been an exciting and dynamic decade filled with considerable achievement evidenced in no small way in that, today, three thousand people use your services. Through your existence, your advocacy, encouragement and support, that is three thousand people who have the chance to achieve their maximum level of independence and to use their abilities to the highest extent possible. When we factor in their families, carers and communities, the impact of your care is experienced by literally tens of thousands for whom RehabCare makes the difference between enduring life and enjoying life.
All over Ireland we have witnessed the growth of much more sophisticated, integrated and customised services and supports for people with disabilities and their families. From respite to residential, from workshops to independent living, from training to entertainment, RehabCare has taken Ireland on a new journey in terms of its attitudes, perceptions and expectations of those with disability. If the past was a cruel place where doors shut tight, closed in the face of disability, then the future you have helped us to aspire to, is a place of open doors, helpful pathways and of potential encouraged to blossom.
On this Tenth Anniversary we celebrate this organisations achievements – and in particular the achievements of the many individuals who through RehabCare made the very best of their lives, talents and opportunities. Whether it was the party in Tullamore in July, or today’s event, the celebrations are a chance to say thank you for the past decade, and to face the next decade with the confidence that comes from a job well done.
Part of the story of the next decade is starting here today with the launch of the nationwide volunteering programme. There is no doubt that the success of RehabCare owes a huge amount to the corps of volunteers, fundraisers and supporters, who have been its mainstay through this decade. They complement the work of the professional staff and energise the organisation with their generosity, their caring spirit and their enthusiasm. I hope, and believe, that many people from all walks of life, will join RehabCare’s activities, and will find through their involvement with this great work, a level of deep personal fulfilment that few other things in life can match. Where the culture of volunteerism is strong our society is strong and volunteers with Rehab play a unique role in assisting those with disability to grow in confidence, in skill and in love of life. This work offers the opportunity to be an agent of profound change in the life of those human beings who are severely challenged and sorely tested not just by their disabilities but by the attitudes which exclude them, the structures which shut them out, the preconceptions which narrow their horizons and the limits, not of their own making, which make their lives a giant obstacle course. Clearing those obstacles out of the way is a very noble and a very necessary endeavour. That is the fundamental work of Rehab, and it exists to give individuals the courage and the chance to feel the freedom of self-fulfilment.
Person-Centred Planning is RehabCare’s core value and core focus. It puts service users first, and not as a group but as individuals with their own particularity which deserves to be respected and responded to. The human person thrives where there is that respect and when it goes hand in hand with the chance to lead a full, interesting, stimulating life, among friends and family, contributing to community life – then that is where we find people transcending disability and living life to the full. So we find Rehab service users not just in sheltered employment but also out working in the unsheltered market economy, hired because they are the best for the job. We find them making a huge contribution to the world of sport, the world of the arts and the world of politics, policy making and community education, through the Advocacy Council.
I commend warmly and thank you all for what you have done. It was not done for thanks or recognition but simply out of a belief that a society which truly and fully includes all its people, whatever their strengths or weaknesses, is a society where talent is not wasted and where people thrive individually and collectively.
Congratulations again on ten hugely successful years. A good start they say is half the work and certainly this past decade has laid firm foundations on which to build an even better second decade with the help of all those new volunteers.
Comhghairdeas libh arís ar an ócáid speisialta, ócáid stairiúil seo agus go raibh míle, míle maith agaibh.