Abstract
The chapter refers to the important significance in the education of people with mental disabilities, which, in addition to state institutions, also have various non-governmental social organizations. The contribution draws attention to the establishment of the Society for the Support of People with Mental Disabilities in the Czech Republic in the early 1960s, headed by Božena Gürtlerová, the mother of a daughter with a severe mental disability.
It is pointed out that the very origin of the SPMP meant a breakthrough into the then paternalistic state access to people with mental disabilities. The aim of the paper is show the activities of the SPMP after 1989 and describe the facts when many other non-governmental non-profit organizations were established throughout the country for the benefit of people with mental disabilities.