Disability Rights California - Peer/Self-Advocacy Unit Vision Statement

Peer/Self-Advocacy Unit (P/SA)

California Memorial Project

California Memorial Project holds 7th annual Remembrance Day (2009)

2009 ceremony at Sonoma Developmental Centerphoto by margaret johnsonFor people who lived much of their lives locked away in state hospitals or forgotten in developmental centers, perhaps the ultimate indignity was to be buried anonymously. In their honor, the California Memorial Project, founded and run by advocates with developmental or psychiatric disabilities, works to create permanent monuments at the burial sites and organizes Remembrance Day every fall. On September 21, over 700 community and family members, advocates, friends and former residents gathered for ceremonies at state centers in Santa Clara, Ukiah, Stockton, Patton, Porterville, Norwalk, Manteca, Sonoma and Napa. At the sites of unmarked and in some cases, mass graves, participants recited poems and recounted personal stories. The developmental disability and peer self-advocacy staff of Disability Rights California take the lead in this project, together with People First of California and the California Network of Mental Health Clients.

Monument dedicated at California Memorial Project, Stockton - June 27, 2008

Moment of silence statewide observed on September 17 to honor people who died in state institutions and developmental centers - 5th Annual Remembrance Day - September 17, 2007

Patton remembers forgotten dead, Daily Bulletin, September 2007

Remembrance ceremonies to be held throughout the state today, Times Herald, September 19, 2006