SMD has existed in various forms since the late 1940s. Today, the SMD family includes a head office in Winnipeg as well as six regional offices throughout Manitoba that provide services and support to people with disabilities in rural areas. SMD is also affiliated with national organizations such as Easter Seals Canada.
Based on projections, disability in Manitoba will continue to rise over the next 25 years. The Society for Manitobans with Disabilities strives for long term sustainability so that programs and services are available to meet the needs of children, youth and adults with disabilities.
Events CCDSThe Canadian Centre on Disability Studies (CCDS) has a mandate dedicated to research, education, and information dissemination on disability issues.CCDS is guided by the philosophies of independent living and community living. The philosophy emphasizes human rights, self-determination, interdependence, equality, a cross-disability focus, and full and valued participation of all citizens in the community. While CCDS is a university affiliated centre we are also committed to fostering a spirit of collaboration among the disability community, government and academia.Follow the links below to learn more CCDS.
A Word About LanguagePeople First is an organization that was formed because some of the people in our communities felt that they were not considered as people first. They felt that they were talked about, talked to, thought about, and treated according to the disabilities that others labelled them with.The founders of People First did not think this was fair. Over the years people have been called mentally handicapped, developmentally disabled, cognitively challenged, intellectually disabled, and many other labels.In order to avoid hurting peoples' feelings and to avoid using labels when we talk about the many different members of People First, we will use the term people who have been labelled.