The following release was sent out by the Massachusetts Association for the Blind:

Watertown resident Vincent O’Connell was honored Nov. 2 at the Annual Meeting of MAB Community Services, a Massachusetts nonprofit, for his work in the 1970s training a group of adult men with disabilities to leave state institutions and live in the community.

Pioneers in the process of de-institutionalization in Massachusetts, MAB (the Massachusetts Association for the Blind) partnered with the Walter E. Fernald State School in 1973 to create a residence for eight men who were blind and developmen­tally disabled. For some, it was the first time they had lived in the community; the first time they had a room of their own; the first time they had experienced the boundless possibili­ties of everyday life.

MAB worked with the Commonwealth to design a residential Life Learning Program to prepare people who were both blind and intellectually disabled for life in the community. The program was housed at Sunlight House in Scituate, which MAB had used as a short term vacation house for people who were blind, including blind residents of the State Schools. The first longterm residents of Sunlight House were eight men who had lived their entire lives in institutions and lacked even the most basic personal skills. They could not count, brush their teeth, or even recall their own last names. The severe social retardation that life-long institutionalization had forced upon them had discouraged them from ever trying to take care of themselves. With O’Connell’s teaching, at Sunlight House these men were assigned responsibilities, instructed in daily living skills, and given job training. Within eighteen months, they all held reasonably demanding jobs, and with the help of a volunteer, arranged a trip to Washington D.C., which included having lunch with their congressman.

O’Connell was honored for his role in the de-institutionalization process at an held at MassHousing in Boston. The original residents of Sunlight House will present him with the award, reuniting them with him for the first time in decades. The event will feature the photography exhibit “Our Stories,” a collection of photographs by Meg Landers and personal stories that reflect the dramatic changes that have taken place over the past forty years in how people with developmental disabilities are served. 

“These stories span a period starting from when state institutions were the only option for families, and people with developmental disabilities grew up not knowing their last names, to a time when people with intellectual disabilities are living full lives in the community as contributing members of society,” said Barbara Salisbury, CEO of MAB Community Services. 

Since his work as head teacher at MAB’s first adult residential program, O’Connell has since served as Chief Financial Officer of the Connecticut Department of Developmental Services.  He resides in Watertown.

MAB Community Services operates the Adult Disability Services residential and vocational program, the Ivy Street School for adolescents with brain injuries, and the Massachusetts Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired.