C/IapfoI‘Fii'e 89

During the fifties, a number of mentally and/or physically challenged people were born in the Tignish area. The next project, following close on the heels of the Health Centre, was to make some provision for their training, so that they would not have to be sent out of the community. This resulted in the Tignish Co—operative Normalization Workshop, which provides facilities for fifteen to twenty physically or mentally challenged men and women to learn and practise skills which will allow them to lead as normal a life as possible within the community. They make crafts, take part in sports - some have won medals at the national Special Olympics — and do simple tasks, such as serving food to schoolchildren or running errands. They really are integrated into the community, where they are seen at mass, at the Legion, in the stores, and so forth. Although this Co~op has been taken over by the provincial Department of Social Services, it continues to be run on the same or similar lines.

Later came a Group Home, and a Residential Co- op covering the whole of West Prince County; the latter ’5 purpose is to find and establish a variety of forms of housing for the challenged - anything from an apartment with no super\ ision to the Group Home. Not all of these places are in Tignish, nor do all of the ”clients”, as they are known, come from there. The Co--op is, in effect, a board of directors, which explores possibilities, buys or rents accommodation, and manages it.

Even in Tignish, however, co—operative projects are not always successful. Among those that have failed or never got off the ground include a Forestry Co-op, one for transporting seniors to Summerside or Charlottetown, a Funeral Co-op, and a Co—op Council for the whole area. The reasons for these failures are usually clear. The Forestry Co—op was primarily a scheme to get a ”make-