SUKI DARDARIAN: "The Star Tribune"
is the largest news organization in the state of Minnesota.
The kinds of stories that we're doing
speak directly to the people in our community.
CHRIS SERRES: I spend most of my time out in the field.
I write about people who are vulnerable in our society.
I feel like if I don't get out there and actually
talk to these folks, their stories will never get out.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
SUKI DARDARIAN: Minnesota had been
a leader in services for the disabled
in the state years ago, but it fell behind.
DAVE HAGE: We owe it to the state,
and we owe it to our readers, to devote some resources to this.
CHRIS SERRES: We traveled all over Minnesota,
from the Iron Range down in the southwest corner of the state.
Scott?
Hi.
We found out we had over 12,000 people
in these sheltered workshops, more than any other state,
where they were earning in some cases less than $1 an hour.
DAVE HAGE: 20,000 Minnesotans consigned
to living in remote, isolated places,
far from their loved ones, and families
who were waiting months, sometimes
years, to get the financial support they
needed to lead ordinary lives.
CHRIS SERRES: We kept hearing over and over again,
we're stuck, stuck, stuck.
Minnesota got stuck.
People got stuck.
SUKI DARDARIAN: As they began to hone their reporting,
the vision was clear for all of us
that we had a really robust story, series of stories.
DAVE HAGE: We found that we relied on children workshops
more than almost any other state.
We had more group homes than any other state.
CHRIS SERRES: People were being denied their civil rights
on a very large scale.
Life choices that we all take for granted--
where to live, where to work, who
you can form loving, lasting relationships with.
That was all being denied them.
DAVE HAGE: A community of people who
have been pushed to the side of our society,
let's bring them back into the middle
and let them tell the story.
CHRIS SERRES: The reader reaction
was like nothing I've ever experienced.
SUKI DARDARIAN: The governor stood up and said,
we need to reform this system.
Lawmakers stepped up and said, we need to do better.
And families came forward and told us,
this is what I've been living.
Thank you for telling this story.
CHRIS SERRES: "A Matter of Dignity"
was viewed as the beginning of this focus of ours
around civil rights for people with disabilities.
And it meant we're going to come back to this again and again
and again and again and again.
And we are.
[MUSIC PLAYING]