The first clubs for handicapped and their friends (cbf) were founded in 1970. Back then, emancipation developed everywhere and the whole society aimed at more independence, civil participation and responsibility. It was the time of the student movement, the beginning of the peace movement and female emancipation.

At that time work with disabled people was dominated by self-help organisations like the Federation of War Victims or the Parents of Disabled Children Associations.

The main focus of the Federations of War Victims was (and mostly still is) to achieve a safe financial protection and supply for their mothers.

The parents associations concentrated mainly on representing the interests of disabled children who where in need of places where they were looked after, special facilities to live, learn and work. Meanwhile integrative approaches have been pursued in this field, too.

Back then, the officials and executives of these organisations acted on behalf of the disabled and looked after their interests and with a quite one-sided emphasis.

During this phase of new beginnings, active young disabled persons experienced a massive lack of freedom.

• Always depending on help, either of the family or of people working in the special facilities, and mostly isolated from their environment.
• Excluded due to the many architectural, technical and most of all psychological barriers which prevented them from participating in social life or leisure time activities and from having the same possibilities of education and professional self-fulfilment.
• Considered as “weak and in need of help” they were suppressed by a lack of confidence in their own abilities, of self-organisation, of real possibilities to have a voice in social life and participate in its organisation.

They wanted to free themselves from these obstacles due to their image in society and asked for the right to acceptance and equality and to participate in social life.

It was clear that third parties – whether governmental institutions or existing federations – were not able to realise these demands for them (or didn’t want to do so).

The new objects:

In view of these deficiencies young disabled persons started an initiative with the following principles:

We are our own experts on the way to a self-determined life!

We take matters into our own hands to create an active partnership between disabled and non-disabled persons.

It has always been a matter of concern to realise relationships without any interdependence or paternalism in order to give an example of a live filled with tolerance and mutual appreciation in larger social groups or in society in general. The necessary learning processes demand a lot, particularly of the disabled club members. Their object is:

We make the first move towards non-disabled people, we help them to get over their uncertainty, fears and reservations. We develop communication by creating situations free of fears.

The Club Community

 In the club, disabled and non-disabled people can

• find people to talk with and friends,
• find comprehension and get help in case of problems coping with everyday life,
• talk about difficulties to communicate with others and learn how to get over fears,
• learn how to express the own opinion in a group,
• get more independent and self-confident by following the example of others,
• spend leisure time together with like-minded people, pursue their hobbies, do sports, go on trips or walks and have parties,
• take on responsibility for others by having a task in the club,
• learn to get more confident in contact with other people and take the first step, e. g. through activities with others in public, like regular meetings in a bar, swimming in a public swimming pool, or working at an information booth or participating in discussions with politicians,
• take part in organising social life as a mature citizen.

Many clubs regularly publish information letters, and meanwhile many of them offer services like out-patient help and care as well as transportation.

The clubs are open to anybody and are happy about everybody who is interested.

Work in the club as a contribution to rehabilitation

Right from the beginning, the work in the club has been oriented to a broad and integral understanding of “rehabilitation” - meanwhile being generally asked for - but which has not been realised yet.

Plans and measures for rehabilitation in the medical and professional sector are still in the foreground and the following result is desired: Disabled persons are to become “useful” citizens, which means professionally integrated tax-payers so that rehabilitation measures get profitable after a certain time.

The object of a real and broad rehabilitation has to be the unreserved acceptance of disabled persons and of their human dignity, which of course they have but which they are often deprived of, frankly or secretly. Only when the requirements to fulfil one’s own life will have been met, disabled citizen will be able to fully integrate into society with all their skills.

In terms of the work in the club a broad understanding of rehabilitation means, e. g.:

• we realise emancipation and integration in our teamwork with the object to increase self-confidence, cultivate friendship, get more independent and learn to take responsibility in private and social life.
• We always approach non-disabled people, too, to win them as partners on our way to achieve rehabilitation and real acceptance of the disabled.
• With our work we want to create the conditions for social rehabilitation having been neglected until now; access to all the important areas of life like: mobility in public life; access to education, a profession and non-school related training, building appropriate flats, guarantee the necessary care, the possibility to participate in leisure time activities and profit from offers by the tourism industry.

The BAG cbf

The Federal Association of the Clubs for Disabled and Their Friends (registered charity) is a federation of local cbf-clubs, working groups of the federal states (autonomous registered charities), other co-operating groups and individual members.

The clubs and their Federal Association are politically and denominationally neutral. Disabled and non-disabled interested persons can equally participate at all levels, nobody may be excluded due to the severity or the kind of his or her disability.

For this reason the BAG cbf is not an association for special groups of disabled people – in fact the heterogeneity of its members is wanted, namely in order to develop solidarity between people with different disabilities and non-disabled citizens.

Working fields of the BAG cbf

Supporting the work of the clubs in towns and administrative districts, e. g.

• by advising the clubs concerning the organisation of their activities, e. g. socio-political work, discussion groups, counselling for individual cases, leisure time activities, provision of services
• through instructions for practical self-help work
• through training concerning public relations work, on financing, on how to get a voice in planning and construction work, on the creation and development of out-patient help and care services, transportation services

Yearly training with nation-wide conferences to develop pragmatic solution approaches for the coping with life of disabled citizens, and on current political subjects and ethic questions of principle, like

• Restructuring of the welfare state and cuts in social services
• Violence towards the disabled and other groups suffering from discrimination, and the development of solidarity between different disadvantaged groups.
• Political participation
• Anthropological and philosophical fundamentals regarding the idea of man
• Development and use of public transport adapted to the needs of the disabled
• Development and in the field of tourism and leisure activities for disabled people
• Development of technical aids and devices

All events are generally open to all who are interested. Depending on the subject special invitations are addressed to decision-makers from government and industry, from the cultural and scientific field as well as to experts of relevant associations. In order to hold successful meetings and progress in discussions, it is particularly important to win representatives from as many fields as possible.

Counselling for individuals, e. g. on

• legal rights
• supply of aids and devices
• supply of housing space
• professional education and work situation
• Interpersonal issues
• Self-responsible participation in self-help work
• Travel possibilities

Often, a question concerning a special problem (e. g. wheelchair equipment) is only the beginning of a complete counselling concerning the whole organisation of life.

Advice for people who deal with the rehabilitation of disabled citizens or with the development of aids and devices, e. g.

• Manufacturers (e.g. of cars, wagons, buses, prefabricated houses, caravans, technical aids and devices),
• Tourism and leisure industry representatives,
• Public and private building contractors,
• Members of other federations,
• People working in job training centres, students, apprentices, e.g. in the fields of architecture, technical and design departments, as well as people working in the field of education.

Counselling, especially by disabled persons (nowadays called “peer counselling”), has always been part of the BAG cbf’s concept and is a good tradition, because disabled persons are the ones who are competent due to their own experience.

Co-operation in committees, e. g. in standardisation committees on a national and international level (technical aids and devices, wheelchairs, lifts, cars, building without barriers), in cross-federational committees working on current issues concerning an environment free of barriers, and in committees of the “Freie Wohlfahrtspflege” (German federation of numerous welfare organisations), as well as in para-state committees of experts.

Representation of political interests takes place through

• contact with Members of the Bundestag (German National Parliament)
• official statements
• public opinion polls, e. g. concerning the voting behaviour of disabled and their partner
• collaboration in relevant working teams of the parties of the Bundestag

International work has also always been part of the duties of the BAG cbf. There have been exchange programs and meetings with people from nearly all western European countries, from Israel, the USA, Poland and – on request of the German Government – from countries of the former Soviet Union, from Georgia, White Russia, the Ukraine and the Russian Federation.

Some programs of the BAG cbf are sponsored by the EU. Moreover, the BAG cbf is member of the European Commission’s working group “Tourism for All”.

Co-operation with other Federations

In 1997 the BAG cbf took over the management of the working group “National Coordination - Tourism and disability – Tourism for All” which had been founded in 1996 in co-operation with the national federations of the disabled which work in the field of accessible tourism for disabled people.

In September 1999 this working group was registered under the name of “Nationale Koordinationsstelle Tourismus für alle (NatKo) e.V.” (a registered charity) and is now located in Mainz offering a tourism information centre.

Since the end of 1998 the BAG cbf has been in contact with decision-makers and initiatives that set the course for the future with world-wide programs like “Agenda 21”. The object of combining these civil movements on all political levels is to include the “design of a barrier-free environment” in planning and action programs. “Planning and building for all” (= also for disabled citizens) is to be part of the general body of thought.

Besides, disabled people and their organisations are to be motivated to become involved in other important problems of our world, e. g. environmental issues.

The aim can only be reached together:

Equal chances for disabled people and their unreserved acceptance.