Mary Law recipient of
Family Alliance Ontario 2006 Heart Award

 

Mary Law is an occupational therapist with her doctoral training in health and social planning.  She is the Co-Director of CanChild Centre of Childhood Disability Research and also holds the Lillie Chair in Childhood Disability Research at McMaster University as well as being the Associate Dean and Professor of the School of Rehabilitation Science.  I could give you a long list of publications and the many awards she has received in her field but I would rather present you with the Mary Law I know.

 

She's fun! And inspirational and committed to the positive values, principles and philosophy of social inclusion.   She is led by her values which have taken her down that road less traveled where she has gathered many diverse friends along the way. 

 

She's a teacher, but when she teaches she raises other professors and teachers to a higher standard by including parents and people with disabilities as co-teachers in her classrooms

 

Mary recognizes the authentic voice of families; she has a knack for finding good people and trusting them.  She gives away her control and power – she knows more questions, and the right ones, than answers. 

 

Mary is an anomaly in today's environment of powerful professionals who we see dominating the lives of countless people – assuming they know best for people. Mary assumes families know best what they need and gives them a place to contribute and collaborate. 

 

By putting families and persons with disabilities in the forefront of her work she understand the needs of families to have control over their own lives and she appreciates the struggle of the individual person.  The parent/family presence is not just felt at CanChild and The School of Rehabilitation Science but is heard loud and clear and again and again. 

 

Mary is now supporting and mentoring other post-secondary institutions to do the same at their schools through the Working Together For Change project which partners with FAO and Ryerson University through a grant from the Sick Kids Foundation.  Part of that grant also looks at Participatory Action Research, a type of research driven by community needs.  An example of this would be the Keeping It Together Kit that many of you are familiar with. 

 

CanChild wanted to do something innovative and with a clear recognition of fulfilling a need articulated by families.  It was parents who said they needed a way to organize all the disability-related information they receive and give out.  And they needed to know how to find resources and become better advocates for their children.  Parents wrote a lot of the KIT; they met in focus groups to brainstorm ideas; they tested, evaluated draft after draft until the final result is a Kit we know now.  One that organizes information and helps families find resources they need. 

 

Mary found a grant to underwrite a Community Capacity Building workshop designed and presented with the Hamilton Family Network and based on the neighbourhood work of John McKnight.  This brought together people unfamiliar with disability from all walks of life and resulted in young people with disabilities being invited to work and play in fashion shows, radio programs and the mayor's office. 

 

CanChild evaluates the Opening Doors Committee of the Hamilton Family Network.  It is an individualized funding committee which has almost completed a Parent Resource guidebook on Individualized Funding which will be available for families on the Network's web site.

 

Mary has responded to a request from the Ministry of Community and Social Services to gather a group of academics, technology experts and parents of children with developmental disabilities to look at technology that will keep people safe who are at risk of wandering.  Families throughout the province are involved in this project.

 

Mary is involved in the design of an Outcomes Measurement project for the Ministry of Children and Youth that is looking at the supports children and youth with disabilities require.  It is based on looking beyond the diagnosis to the identification in the context of participation and their families' priorities.

 

One of Mary's passions is Family-centred Service.  She believes all services: medical, social and educational should be organized this way.  To that effect, her team, including families of course, created a book of tip sheets on how professionals can learn to deliver their services in the Family-centred way. 

 

These are just a few highlights of the wonderful, important and necessary work done under Mary's guidance over the time I have known her. 

 

Did I tell you she likes to celebrate?  There's always cake, and lunch and wine and cheese being offered at CanChild and the School of Rehabilitation Science.  There's always parking passes and honorariums for parents and people with disabilities too.  Plus lots of credit – the names of parents as authors and/or co-investigators is on a lot of Mary's published work. 

 

Mary personifies academic leadership that is relevant to people's lives.  She supports her staff and students to discover their own leadership potential.  She is a model of excellence that transforms people and inspires them to go to a higher level. She leads from behind, always putting children and youth with disabilities and their families into the forefront. 

Jan Burke-Gaffney