Kwartiermaken
'Quarter-making'
A short text about 'Quarter-making'
Quarter-making consists of an ever-evolving practice that helps people with a psychiatric background to participate again in ordinary social life. This is done, - in collaboration with others -, by organising situations within social life in which people are not reduced to a syndrome, but in which their being different is heard and respected.
Quarter-making is also an attitude with which professionals and other people involved can make themselves familiar. It does not look at the client from the perspective of the needs of society, but from the perspective of what the client needs to manifest her- or himself as a citizen.
Quarter-making is also a vision that expresses the conviction that a society is stronger and more fascinating when it makes room for meaningful differences, instead of emphasizing equality and uniformity.
In 2008, quarter-making, represented by its founder and inspirator Doortje Kal, received the Douglas Bennett Award from the Knowledge Centre for Rehabilitation and Recovery.