Monday 10 June 2013

Ruth Wolf

A name that was well-known amongst disabled people and service providers in Birmingham back in the 1970s and 1980s was Mrs Ruth Wolf.

Ruth Wolf was a disabled person who was very active in a Birmingham based organisation called the Midlands Council For Preparatory Training Of The Disabled. Founded in 1957 the organisation worked closely with the rehabilitation service of the NHS in Birmingham to support people with acquired impairment to re-train for new careers, professions and occupations.

Another of the organisation's objectives was 'to prepare for the time when active re-training can commence with employers or various training centres' and also 'to help people to find remunerative work at home'. Both of these objectives might indicate that prospects of being employed back in the late 1950s was in reality low.

The organisation's close links with the health service is perhaps indicated by the fact that the chair in the 1980s was a doctor, Dr R Hudson-Evans, whilst the vice-chair was Professor Edward Marsland.

In April 1977 the organisation, which had previously been known as The Midlands Preparatory Training Committee, aligned itself more closely with the Royal Association for Disability and Rehabilitation (RADAR) which had been formed that year following the merger of the British Council for Rehabilitation of the Disabled and The Central Council for the Disabled.

Around this time Ruth Wolf was also the membership secretary of Disablement Income Group's Birmingham branch, founded in 1966 as well as being involved with the West Midlands Council for Disabled People, formed in 1977 and based at Moseley Hall Hospital.

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