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Yearbooks

Posted on 27th July 2020 at 15:34

Lets take a look in our Yearbooks!

Cerebral Palsy Midlands (CPM) archives hold a selection of Yearbooks. This type of publication was a common feature of many parent-led associations established in the middle of the twentieth century.

What do Yearbooks reveal?

Their main aims were to highlight association activities and raise awareness of the effects of cerebral palsy on individuals. With the passing of time they have become a valuable historical resource, giving an insight into the development of the association as we can see ‘how things used to be’.

Articles contributed do not confine themselves solely to the year in which they were published and this widens our perspective. Through a close study of Yearbooks, we can reflect on social change and attitudes to cerebral palsy.

The publication dates of the Yearbooks I have examined broadly cover the period from 1972 to 1998.

Count Your Blessings

Posted on 12th May 2017 at 11:00

Celebrating our seventy years of service as Cerebral Palsy Midlands this year, I have been researching through our rich archives and history to find our early beginning's and how we come to be set up offering day care services to adults with cerebral palsy and relating conditions. Today I found a yearbook, celebrating fifty years of Midlands People with Cerebral Palsy (MSA) now Cerebral Palsy Midlands (CPM) and inside the yearbook, a poem written by one of our long term clients, Margaret Green, caught my eye.

Count your blessings by Margaret Green

All of us have problems

Which makes us gripe and groan

So that feel hard done by

And gives us cause to moan

But when I look around at life

And see how it can be

I see many other folk

Much worse off than me

It makes me stop and wonder

How awful it would be

If I were suddenly struck blind

With eyes that could not see

And loving music as I do

My feelings are so strong

For all the deaf who cannot hear

The sound of birds in song.

Margaret Green, here singing at our CPM Factor talent competition in 2016. Singer and Poet here at CPM

How did organisations such as Cerebral Palsy Midlands begin?

Posted on 9th February 2017 at 14:21

Towards the end of the Second World War there was significant social change which led to reforms in legislation relating to health and education. The 1944 Education Act was at the heart of this change and was seen by many as a turning point in the delivery of education. The Act provided a structure for free education for children from nursery level upwards and introduced the tripartite system of education consisting of grammar schools, secondary modern and secondary technical schools. Local authorities became responsible for providing education and one of the aims of this new system was to give more equality of opportunity to children.

A warm welcome from Cerebral Palsy Midlands

Posted on 25th January 2017 at 12:29

My name is Teresa Hillier and I am based at Swansea University where I am working towards a PhD. My research is focused on how organisations such as Cerebral Palsy Midlands (CPM) became established in the middle of the twentieth century.

I first became aware of CP Midlands when researching a similar organisation which was based in Swansea. That organisation was known as Swansea and District Spastic Association when it was established in 1952. It later became known as Longfields Association. On reading the minutes of Longfields there were references to Carlson House School and how staff members from Longfields visited Carlson House School for training purposes.