VIA was created in 1971, under its original name of CMH - the Campaign for the Mentally Handicapped. At that time about 65,000 people in England were living in mental handicap hospitals - large segregated institutions where the conditions were deprived and the regimes often brutal. In 1971 the government produced a major policy document which envisaged a reduced but continuing role for the hospitals. A small group of people were outraged not only by this proposal, but by the support it received from the main UK advocacy organisations. Those people gathered under the banner of CMH to protest - and were quickly dismissed as wild idealists.
Although not well known to the public, VIA has been enormously influential. It is now widely accepted that people shouldn't live in large institutions, and the long-stay population is now down to around 10,000. But that's 10,000 too many, and there is also a growing backlash, supported mainly by parents of people in institutions who are frightened of the unknown. VIA was the first organisation to suspect, and then identify through a series of research-based reports, that recent changes in the structure of the UK health services had created new obstacles to hospital closure.
On these pages you can find more information about specific VIA projects now in progress. But alongside those activities is a constant stream of work involving lobbying at both national and local levels, support to members and others who need information and advice, and work in partnership with other organisations - including the national Learning Disability Coalition, which VIA helped to create.
All this is done by a very small staff group - just six people - with help from VIA's members, especially the elected committee. A few people, mostly former staff, and carefully checked by VIA, also offer services on VIA's behalf. VIA is a registered UK charity (No. 291981), dependent on grants, subscriptions, and publication sales. There have been few times in VIA's history when money was not desperately short, but following the withdrawal this year of a small but important government grant, finances are now in a critical condition.
On the brighter side, we know we are not working alone. Both in the UK and around the world there are people who share our determination to achieve justice and citizenship for people who have learning difficulties. We hope these pages will help to bring them together.