“In the Shadow of Fairview,” a one-hour documentary examining the history of Oregon’s largest institution, premiered on OPB Monday, December 14th, 2020.
Independence Northwest’s Board of Directors President Linda Gheer is among several high profile self-advocates and former Fairview residents featured in the film. OPB has done an extraordinary job capturing a very difficult chapter in our state’s history while also illuminating the exceptional efforts and vision of Oregonians with disabilities, their family members, and community advocates.
From OPB: “Twenty years ago, the last resident left Fairview Training Center. For nearly 100 years, Fairview was Oregon’s primary institution for those with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Oregon is considered a leader at in-home and community-based services and supports for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD). But it wasn’t always that way. For nearly 100 years, the Fairview Training Center housed thousands of Oregonians with disabilities. The facility opened in 1908 as the State Institution for the Feeble-Minded. Most of the first patients were transferred from the Oregon State Hospital for the Insane. For decades, residents were officially referred to as ‘inmates.’”