Susan Thomas and Mike Duggan gave brief presentations on the history of Wolf Wolfensberger’s work.
Susan worked for and with Wolf for 38 years. She is a primary trainer of SRV and PASSING, plus all of the other Training Institute workshops (such as the multi-day workshops on ‘striving for moral coherency in a disfunctional world’ and on the ‘threats to the lives of societally devalued people’). Susan plays an instrumental role in the ongoing training and development of new leaders in SRV and PASSING. She co-authored with Wolfensberger many articles as well as the text PASSING, and is the author of multiple articles on SRV and related work. She is on the editorial board of The SRV Journal, and is a member of the North American SRV Development, Training and Safeguarding Council. One of her primary points in this morning’s tribute was that Wolf’s work was a battle for ideas, minds and hearts. Ideas are powerful; ideas have consequences.
Mike gave a tribute to Wolfensberger as ‘a passionate and devoted truth seeker and a champion of the oppressed and most vulnerable.’ In this presentation, he listed 9 of Wolf’s (many) contributions. One that stood out for me was Mike’s emphasis on the devastation of heightened vulnerability, and the power of valued social roles to address vulnerability and devaluation. He powerfully shared how Wolf’s teaching and insights gave a framework and language to the devaluation he himself was experiencing. Indeed, he said that Wolf’s work made him feel safe.
Mike was a presenter at the very first International SRV Conference, and is published in The SRV Journal. Though growing up with his family, he later had the devalued roles of patient and institution resident as a young person. Mike went on to get the valued role of university graduate and today has the valued roles of neighbor, tenant, jazz lover, sports enthusiast, activist, parishioner, eucharistic minister; as well as the good things of life which come from those and other valued roles.
