Dave Lawson says goodbye to a career focused on inclusion

By Al Beeber - Lethbridge Herald on October 19, 2024.

Herald photo by Al Beeber Dave Lawson, third from right, poses for photos at his retirement open house Friday at Inclusion Lethbridge.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDabeeber@lethbridgeherald.com

The Lawson family has always been about inclusion. And now after a long career championing those without a voice, Dave Lawson has retired from his role as executive director of Inclusion Lethbridge.

Lawson, whose minister father Alex is believed to have officiated the first same sex union in Lethbridge many years ago, is part of a clan for whom inclusion is a way of life.

And now at 66 years old, Lawson has left behind a career spanning more than four decades.

An open house is being staged in his honour today from 3 until 5 p.m. at the Inclusion Lethbridge office at 527 6 St. S. The organization will celebrate his contributions to the community he helped build.

Lawson got his start as a community support worker at the Southern Alberta Community Living Association – where his son Mitch now is employed – moving on to become a team leader.

In 2005, he joined the Lethbridge Association for Community Living, the organization now called Inclusion Lethbridge.

As executive director, Lawson has strived to enrich the lives of marginalized developmentally disabled people by championing their rights and working to integrate them into the community in which they live.

“He has exemplified the principles of empowerment and equal opportunities through various programs and initiatives. Over the years, the organization has successfully implemented services such as educational workshops, community engagement events, and personalized support programs. These efforts have significantly raised awareness of disability rights and nurtured a deeper understanding in the broader community,” says the organization of Lawson.

In a phone interview this week, Lawson looked back at his career and the changes that have occurred in society as developmentally disabled people were taken out of segregated learning environments and put into regular classrooms with their family members and neighbours.

“It’s a big switch in life for sure,” said Lawson who was in his 18th year with Inclusion Lethbridge before retiring.

“We’ve always had people with disabilities around,” Lawson said of his family. Son Mitch helps find employment for people with disabilities with SACLA. And his late father Alex was always about personal empowerment.

Lawson feels people with disabilities still struggle “for full citizenship. Citizenship is something lots of us take for granted but we have to remember people with disabilities were actually sent away from communities and put into institutions. My draw to the field was actually the community living movement when we were moving people out of institutions, repatriating them back to the community and demonstrating that they could make a valuable contribution to the community,” he said.

“Lots of times people suggested because that sort of treatment didn’t happen to you that it shouldn’t bother you or shouldn’t affect you but we know the marginalization of people does have a legacy. We’re pretty clear on that in today’s society.

“People with developmental disabilities were seen as not having any role, not only a not a role in community but not a role in families. We were quick to remove them from their families and send them away to institutions or we created separate and segregated schools for them.”

Those schools were a big step forward and the foundation of Inclusion Lethbridge was the building of Dorothy Gooder School, he recalled. The families who created that space for children to go to school when they weren’t allowed to attend school at all “demonstrated that kids could learn and teachers could teach kids with disabilities,” said Lawson, noting Dorothy Gooder was the first president of Inclusion Lethbridge.

Gooder, whose own son was born with Down Syndrome “believed that all children could have the same opportunities to learn and grow as long as teaching methods were appropriately modified,” according to the Galt Museum.

In 1955, she started a pilot program with six kids with disabilities who were taught in a segregated classroom, a project that showed children with disabilities could indeed learn and benefit from being in the public school system. Dorothy Gooder School opened in 1959 and operated for 19 years.

When Lawson became involved in the disability field in the early 1980s he thought “what an evil place this is” of the segregated school.

He said believed kids with disabilities had the right to attend school in their neighbourhoods with their brothers and sisters.

“That’s the thing that’s always fascinated me about families. They see all of these things as stepping stones to something better and in the early 1980s we knew as long as there was Dorothy Gooder, there would be a push to have kids with disabilities go there so we sold Dorothy Gooder” for a dollar and the next day advocated to have it closed.

“I think that’s what draws me to working with families. Nobody hangs onto an innovative idea like the people who came up with it but as we as an organization recognized that Dorothy Gooder School had done its time and served its purpose and it was time to close it down and to make sure that kids with disabilities would go to their neighbourhood schools with their brothers and sisters and friends so that was a big part of our process was to get rid of segregated schools,” Lawson added.

There was some difficulty getting disabled students into schools until legislation was introduced that empowered families to push for inclusive education.

“We still see some backsliding from time to time where there will be special rooms…as long as we have these places that are specialized, we find that they’re always going to want to put children in them so it’s really important that classrooms are inclusive,” added Lawson.

“Our mandate and our focus is for people with developmental disabilities,” he said of Inclusion Lethbridge. People with autism, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and Down’s Syndrome are among those the organization works with.

The Lawson family has personal experience with developmental disabilities. A brother of Lawson’s named Ian died on infancy and he said that “had a pretty profound effect on our family to think that a world where Ian would have found success and been included and been expected to contribute to society” would exist at some time.

“My thrill has been supporting families as they try to find an inclusive pathway for their loved one with a disability. I’m always happy to help people. The thing about Inclusion Lethbridge is people would find success but other families would be struggling with the same sort of issues. So Inclusion Lethbridge is really a place where families can come together and share their successes and struggles and help other people be successful.”

In a media statement, board president Bruce MacKay said “Dave is devoted to building an inclusive community. His personality, energy, and connections with many people across the city has helped create positive change in the lives of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.”