The Disability Trust would not be where it is today without the steely resolve of Margaret Bowen, who was at the forefront of the organisation’s success for more than 35 years before she retired as Chief Executive Officer in 2022.
Her unwavering commitment helped the Trust grow substantially over the years in its mission of creating a more inclusive world for everyone.
Margaret, who is still making a major contribution as a member of the board, is characteristically modest about her achievements, pointing out that teamwork at all levels was the secret behind the Trust’s success.
“Back in 1987, we were a tiny, little organisation. I was having a break from my real career. There were only four people with us at the time, so I thought it would be something that I would do for a little while,” she recalled.
“I actually fell in love with it as a career and I never applied for another job after that. And it’s been a wonderful, wonderful journey.
“We were small, but we were feisty. If we could have changed the world with one letter to a minister at a time, we certainly would have.
“We were primarily an advocacy group and we were a little bit unusual in that most advocacy groups just come from one cohort of disability, but we had people with physical disability that were rallying about access to the community, and people and families of people with intellectual disability who were really struggling to get services on the ground in the Illawarra.
“Choices for families in those days were very, very limited. You had to look at institutional care, which wasn’t great, or you had to look after your son and daughter completely by yourself. So we were very involved in some of the establishment of some of the first services in the Illawarra.”
Margaret paid tribute to the people who laid the groundwork before she joined the Trust like Jan May, Joanne Babb and Dr Michael Ryan.
“They were great people, and I learned a lot from those early pioneers,” she added.
“They were my mentors, and they taught me that it isn’t enough to just provide services to people with disability. You actually have to advocate to change the world, and that’s something that the Trust has managed to do over a very long period of time.
“I like to think we provide really high-quality services, but beyond that, we try to create more inclusive communities, and we just try to create a better life for people with disability.”
Margaret said the Sport and Recreation program was the first service that the Trust provided which established a foothold in the community and in the early 1990s, the organisation expanded into new ways to assist people with disability.
“We were one of the pioneers of the attendant care program, which provided support for people with physical disability moving out of nursing homes, and it provided the service supports in people’s homes so that they didn’t have to leave their families, so that, basically, they didn’t have to live with a bunch of old people in institutional care, which is quite wrong for young people in their 20s and 30s,” she said.
“So we were very proud of that. We also were one of the earlier organisations to run employment programs, recognising the importance of supporting people to get into mainstream employment when they were able to do that.
“Day programs came in fairly early as well and there was a cohort of people with very complex support needs who many of the other providers didn’t want to provide supports to. Not that we had a lot of experience in that field, but we understood that people had a right to services, so by default, we ended up starting to run day programs, and that also rapidly expanded.
“It surprises me in that it seemed to happen relatively easily. I think the key is that if you’re providing something that people want and they generally value you as an organisation, then you’re going to continue to grow.”
Getting feedback from the people supported by the Trust made all the hard work worthwhile.
Margaret recalled there was a parent of one of their participants who approached her a decade after she had started receiving services to let her know the magnitude of what The Disability Trust had done for their family.
“It was more than a decade later that she came up to me and she said ‘you don’t understand but The Disability Trust changed my life because I was in a point of despair where I couldn’t see a future for my daughter and The Disability Trust provided me not just with services but with a different view of the world. My daughter has not just survived, she’s thrived and been a success and I’m enormously proud of what she’s achieved’.
“I’m proud of our staffing teams that keep giving. I think the Trust has been really blessed to not just have people who regard it as a job but people who regard it as a mission to support people with disability and to, at the same time, try to build those connections in the community to be part of the journey of changing the world.
“I’m proud of the way that we’ve grown over the years because I think we’re offering a good life and good opportunities to more people. So there’s a lot to be proud of.”
As for the future, Margaret said the Trust would remain strong as long as it remains true to its values.
“I think the thing that’s most important to me is that we hold fast to that mission – that we don’t just continue to provide services, although that’s critical, but that we have a vision that’s bigger than that, that’s larger and more expansive than that.
“I hope that we don’t just become captive to a government’s view of the world. It’s up to us to challenge the status quo and obviously we do that in different ways now. We don’t just write a bunch of letters off to ministers anymore. But we have a voice within the service system and it’s really important that we use that wholly and solely for the support of people with disability and for creating a better world.”
