Grassroots Project Webinar on Successful Practices and Outcomes in Coalition-Building

August 9, 2024

Wednesday, August 28, 2024 | 2:00-3:30 p.m. ET
Register for the webinar

ACL's Grassroots Project was launched in 2023 to support the work of disability advocates to ensure the perspectives, priorities, and preferences of disabled people are reflected in disability policies and service systems. A key focus of the Grassroots Project is supporting partnership development and facilitating collaboration among national, state, and local disability advocates. The project also supports outreach and education to help people with disabilities stay informed about policies that affect them.

This national webinar - the third hosted by the Grassroots Project - will bring together state and local advocates and coalitions to discuss best practices for establishing common goals and collaborating to achieve them, and for ensuring disabled people are leading the charge to drive change. We will hear from ABLE South Carolina, Disability Policy Consortium Massachusetts, and the Ohio Olmstead Task Force on how working in cross-disability, disability-led, and community-driven frameworks propels disability advocacy forward and creates momentum for advancing disability rights.

ASL interpretation, Spanish interpretation, and live English captions will be provided during the webinar. Please note, due to a recent Zoom update, full accessibility including ASL interpretation may not work if you are joining with a mobile device (ASL interpretation and slides can no longer be viewed simultaneously via phone or tablet). We have been in direct communication with Zoom to communicate this limitation and advocate for this barrier to be removed. ASL interpretation during this webinar will be available to those who join via desktop or laptop computer. In response to this accessibility limitation, we are engaging in a national advocacy effort with our partners to elevate this systemic accessibility issue in an effort to ensure Zoom makes the needed changes to their user design.

Webinars are recorded and posted with supporting materials on the HSRI website.

If you require additional accommodations to participate, or if you have any questions about the webinar, please contact us at [email protected].

Speakers:

• Brittanie Maddox is the community engagement coordinator for Disability Rights Ohio (DRO) and vice chair of the Ohio Olmstead Task Force. She holds a bachelor's degree in disability studies from the University of Toledo, as well as a master's degree in legal studies from American University.
• Jennifer Kucera was born with spinal muscular atrophy. She is the healthcare outreach coordinator at the Center for Disability Empowerment in Columbus, Ohio. Jennifer also chairs Ohio's DD Council, serves on United Healthcare's National Advisory Board, and is the chair of the Ohio Olmstead Task Force, which is a grassroots statewide advocacy group.
• Noel Martin Rubio is the development and communications director at Disability Policy Consortium, where he supports the growth of a $2.7 million annual budget through grant writing, corporate relations, program design, and partnership building.
• Kimberly Tissot serves as the president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Able SC, where she guides the staff in applying the philosophy of independent living to real life situations. She also serves as an executive director mentor to other South Carolina nonprofit organizations via the state's nonprofit association.
• Sierra Royster is the director of capacity building for Able SC, where she is responsible for developing and implementing projects to enhance internal and external expertise around independent living, disability rights, and disability justice. Before Able SC, she worked in the disability community for 19 years, 15 of those years working in independent living.