Minda Incorporated, established in 1898, provides support to children and adults with disability in Adelaide, South Australia and is the largest non-Government disability support organisation in the state. The not-for-profit organisation offers support and opportunity to approximately 1,750 South Australians with disability in the areas of accommodation, supported employment, lifestyle services and respite. It is Minda's vision for people with disability to live enriched lives of their choosing, and purpose and mission to be a progressive organisation of choice for people with disability, supporting on their journey toward enriched lives with greater community participation and contribution. Minda has office locations in the beachside suburb of Brighton, in Elizabeth, Modbury and Mount Gambier. The organisation was originally formed to provide support and lodging for children with intellectual disabilities.
History
Prior to 1898, children with intellectual disabilities were housed along with adults in the lunatic asylum at Parkside. After lobbying by concerned citizens, notably George Ash M.P., the government promised £500 towards a better quality institution specifically for children, provided that a similar amount was raised from donations. This target was achieved and in 1897 a home was purchased on Fullarton Road, Fullarton. The home was registered as the Home for Weak Minded Children, but was called Minda, from a Kaurna word meaning 'place of shelter and protection'. The first children moved in during May 1898. A larger property was bought at Brighton in 1909, and with further government support a new and larger home was erected. This was incorporated as Minda Homein September 1911. Further buildings and additions were built over the next two decades, and by 1934 Minda operated a farm and dormitory at Blackwood. Despite Minda being established to provide a better environment for 'weak minded' children than Parkside Mental Hospital, Parkside continued to accommodate such children with several children being transferred from Minda to Parkside in 1940. In 1980, 55 hectares of Craigburn Farm was donated for inclusion in Sturt Gorge Recreation Park as part of an agreement to allow subdivision of land south of the Sturt River in Flagstaff Hill. The major part of the balance of the farm at Blackwood was sold in the 1990s and forms the major part of Craigburn Farm, a major housing development. In 2007 the state government announced that the farm's dam would be included in an enlarged Sturt Gorge Recreation Park, building on the original donation and saving the dam from demolition.
Slang usage
The organisation is so well established in South Australia that the word "minda" has come to be used as an offensive slang term for a person with an intellectual disability, and as an insult, but only in that particular State.
