GLAD 20 YEARS - Flipbook - Page 5
Authors’
Foreword
You cannot say TV-Glad without saying Henrik Marentius and Mikkel Holmbäck. In 1999 the two
youthful ambitious firebrands courageously threw themselves into creating what is believed to
be the world’s very first TV station for and with people with mental disabilities.
20 years later, TV-Glad is part of the registered socio-economic company Glad Foundation along
with the branches Design, Food, Facility, Business, Vocational School, Zoo Theatre and a number of
projects. Henrik Marentius is Senior Consultant and Mikkel Holmbäck CEO for the app. 300 employees, out of which some 150 are people employed on special terms due to cognitive challenges. In
2003, the Glad-TV Association restructured and became the self-owned TV-Glad Foundation. Due to
increased commercial earnings, the TV-Glad Foundation registered as an economically operating
foundation, now simply called Glad Foundation in order to accommodate the many fields of business.
We have interviewed 30 of Glad Foundation’s present and former employees. Ordinarily employed staff, flex-workers and employees with public wage subsidies; from all the various businesses
and the branches in Aabenraa, Esbjerg, Vejen, Ringsted and Copenhagen. We have put identical
questions to everyone but the two founders. The answers are incredibly different and bear witness
to Glad Foundation’s complexity and diversity. However, two statements were echoed by everyone:
“When we explain Glad Foundation to people, we start with TV-Glad” and “at Glad we hug!” This is
true!
In the following, we have condensed 20 years into one Maggi Cube. It is neither half the truth
or one quarter, but a variety of impressions over two decades. And just so that you know: We, the
authors, are both employed in our wonderful, colourful enterprise; and no one has interfered in
our writing it.
Happy Reading!
Lotte Horup and Hanne Jensen
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