To learn about our history with advocacy, we need to understand the history of abuse and mistreatment towards individuals with disabilities.

In the 1900s, institutions were built in conjunction with industrialization. Families were working and no longer home to care for their disabled sons and daughters. In 1907 ground was broken for the Ladd school. Though the Ladd School is often remembered as a kind of assisted-living facility for youth and adults with developmental disabilities, over a hundred years ago it was better known as a feeble-minded school — an institution more closely resembling a psychiatric hospital and reformatory.

In the 1950s, institutions across the country began to decline. There was no money and no oversight. The grass-roots group, “Parents Council for Retarded Children” (beginning in 1951) reformed as “RI Association for Retarded Citizens” (ARC) in 1964 as an impetus for change in Rhode Island. They helped establish the first Office of Mental Retardation (OMR) in the Department of Health in 1966, and created the Department of Mental Health , Retardation and Hospitals (MHRH) in 1970. Other organizations such as ANCOR (established in 1970), Advocates in Action (established in the early 90s), and independent advocates and agencies ( such as the John E. Fogarty Center, the J. Arthur Trudeau Memorial Center, etc) began advocating for services and laws to protect the rights of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Avatar Residential has been a staunch advocate for people with IDD since its conception in 1990. Our philosophy from the start has been centered around non-aversive behavioral management, natural learning, choices, and experiences.