Disability Rights California - Peer/self-Advocacy Unit Statement

Peer/Self-Advocacy Unit (P/SA)

Monument dedicated at California Memorial Project, Stockton

Advocates gather to sing around the newly installed memorial at California State University StanslausThe California Memorial Project (CMP) works to honor Californians who have died anonymously in institutions and state hospitals and to establish monuments and other memorials at their burial sites. Over the past three years, California Disability Right's Developmental Disabilities Peer/Self-Advocacy and Peer/Self Advocacy Units have been working with the Stockton California Memorial Project Team made up of individuals from day programs in Stockton, Sonora and Manteca, the Department of Mental Health, the Department of Developmental Services, People First of California, Self-Advocacy Council VI and Area Board VI.

J.O. graces the memorial monument at California State University StanislausConstruction work in 2005 uncovered 42 sets of remains on the California State University at Stanislaus grounds. The Stockton CMP restoration team advocated for the remains to stay at their original resting place, but they were moved to Stockton Rural Cemetery. Since then, the CMP team has worked hard to design monuments to honor the people who lived and died at Stockton State Hospital.

More than 100 people attended the celebration at California State University Stanislaus to honor those who lived out their lives in remote institutionsThrough our efforts, three monuments have been designed and placed on the grounds of CSU Stanislaus and Stockton Rural Cemetery. On Friday, June 27th, over 100 people came to the CSU Stanislaus campus to celebrate the monuments being placed and give respect to those who had to leave their home communities and live in a remote institutional setting for the rest of their lives.

Bouquets adorn the monument at Stockton Rural Cemetery-thumb.jpgDuring the ceremony, a heartfelt speech was given by a man who spent the majority of his life in an institution and, had it not been for his sister and community supports, might have lived there forever. After the ceremony, 20 project members walked to the Rural Cemetery to lay flowers at the newly installed monument and hold a moment of silence.

Future tasks of the Stockton CMP team include: obtaining the names of all the individuals who died at Stockton State Hospital and other institutions; memorializing their individual stories and the history of the disability community from the perspective of those who lived it; and appropriately honor those buried at current and former state institutions. Stockton is the first site in California to establish formal monuments; we have six other sites to be addressed.