This workshop gives participants a practical introduction to the principles of Social Role Valorization. Through a combination of multimedia presentation and small group discussion, participants will learn about the phenomenon of social devaluation. This event includes discussion of how people with disabilities and other devalued groups have been systematically hurt and harmed by society, and what the impact of that devaluation has been. Participants will also learn about ways to help people have better lives by supporting them to achieve positive valued social roles. We will discuss practical strategies to make this a reality for the people you support.

There have been many ideologies throughout history which have shaped society’s treatment of “others.” Few have been more powerful or had more devastating impacts than the Eugenics movement, the ideas of which were most fully developed in the United States at the turn of the century and adopted by Germany in the early 1920s with horrific consequences. This educational event will focus on the American Eugenics movement, its champions, its foes, and its work to wage war against some of society’s most vulnerable populations through mass sterilization, brutalization, segregation, and euthanasia.

The Introduction to Social Role Valorization is an intensive workshop, which presents the idea of assisting people with disabilities and other devalued conditions to have positive social roles as a productive and helpful response to wounding life experiences. Social Role Valorization is a comprehensive theory which provides insights as to why certain groups of people become devalued in society, what life experiences are likely to befall people once they have become devalued in the eyes of others, why valued social roles are a powerful response in combatting the negative life experiences, and ten essential themes which can guide implementers in pursuing valued roles by, with, and for those practitioners desire to serve.