Kleinman Consulting LLC
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Disability Bulletin Board
Disability Rights is a Civil Rights Issue
Civil Rights for People with Disabilities through Communication

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If you want something to appear in the next edition send it to me at jayne@kleinmanconsulting.com,
Jayne Kleinman, 203-238-9391

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Disability Advocacy Collaborative
Background

Problem Statement: Starting in the early fall of 2003, a small group of individuals began meeting to determine the feasibility of developing a new advocacy initiative in the state of Connecticut. At that time a number of state agency disability leaders were retiring, and the state legislature’s Program Review and Investigations Committee was considering a proposal to merge several disability agencies into one super-agency.

Meetings continued over several months with larger groups of advocates and the following needs were identified:

• We must improve communication between and among the various advocacy organizations
• We must create a more unified voice among disability advocacy groups, which would result in a stronger political power base
• We must enhance support for broad based advocacy issues
• We must do a better job of educating the legislature
• We must include youth and elders in disability advocacy strategies
• We must include individuals with disabilities and families not currently involved in disability advocacy, with an emphasis on grass roots organizing and leadership development
• We must encourage passion and enthusiasm in the promotion of disability rights

The concept of a Disability Advocacy Collaborative was therefore born and the above bullets became the Problem Statement the Collaborative would address.

Summary of the Initiative: The newly formed Disability Advocacy Collaborative proposes to revitalize the disability rights movement in Connecticut by pulling together advocacy organizations under the umbrella of a “collaborative” structure. The Collaborative, which will be in place by the end of this calendar year, has been designed to take place in three phases:

1. a concentration on voter education and voter registration this year,
2. a series of regional cross-disability self-advocacy training workshops in year 2 (2005) and
3. the big event - a large scale disability convention in the fall of 2006, which will be the next year we will elect state constitutional officers (i.e., Governor, Attorney General, Treasurer, Comptroller, Secretary of State).

For 2005, the Collaborative has received funding ($27,970) from the Council on Developmental Disabilities to organize a series of cross-disability self-advocacy workshops that will be offered in six regions of the state from June – December. The outcome of these workshops will be a solid foundation for a Disability Convention that will be held in the fall of 2006, the next election year for our state constitutional officers (i.e., Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of State, etc.).

The DD Council funding will support the development of the organization by enabling it to

1. complete the compiling of a comprehensive disability advocacy contact list,
2. secure the support (i.e., sign on) of all identified disability advocacy groups,
3. identify self advocacy training curricula that currently exist (e.g., Advocacy Unlimited, Partners in Policymaking, People First),
4. develop a curriculum for regional, cross-disability, self-advocacy workshops, be culturally and ethnically diverse, and include families as well as people with disabilities, and
5. plan and implement a series of self-advocacy workshops in each of the six regions of the state.

The work of the Collaborative will be directed by Stan Kosloski, recently retired Assistant Director of the State Office of Protection and Advocacy for Persons with Disabilities, and currently a Community Facilitator (part-time) for the University Center on Disabilities at the University of Connecticut Health Center, and Jayne Kleinman, a long time disability rights advocate and the principal behind Kleinman Consulting, LLC.

The primary outcome of this community organizing project will be a strong, respected, and effective cross-disability rights organization, fully capable of advocating the critical issues facing people with disabilities and families.