Activating Change — Impact Report 2025

Impact Report

2025

1 out of every 4
adults in the U.S.
has a disability—
and they experience
disproportionate
rates of violence
and criminalization.

People with disabilities are 4X more likely to experience rape, sexual assault, robbery, and aggravated assault—and this rate is even worse for people of color and women.

From Our
Executive Director

Dear Friends of Activating Change,

Our last year of work has been a testament to the power of resilience and collective action in the midst of unprecedented challenges.

One of the toughest was the loss of more than $4.5M in grants to our work, forcing decisions we never anticipated having to make. This included having to determine who would remain on our team to do the work and indeed whether some of the work could be done at all. All around us, we watched peers at other organizations in our sector shutter entirely or silently fade away from their advocacy. In the face of increasing threats to both Deaf people and people with disabilities, we refused to let our advocacy be compromised. Instead, we transformed the ways we work, coming up with innovative solutions and strategies to address these challenges and keep pressing forward.

For the first time in our history, we activated a broad network of individual donors and philanthropic leaders. Not only were we able to sustain our operations, we emerged with a strengthened network to protect the rights of people with disabilities and Deaf people for years to come.

As I write this message in early 2026, I am reflecting on the progress this resilience made possible. In 2025 alone, we successfully conducted just under 50 training sessions with more than 3,000 attendees, held more than 40 educational webinars, and consulted 500+ advocates, all to better center the rights of people with disabilities and Deaf people. Today, survivors of violence with vision disabilities in California have access to critical service information using telephone readers, and survivors in Massachusetts can access an inclusive shelter thanks to new wheelchair lifts. These outcomes are lifelines for safety, healing, and freedom.

As we prepare for 2026, I couldn't be more proud of all our team has accomplished. I am deeply grateful to the Activating Change community and our supporters. Your dedication ensures we can continue to advocate for those who have long been excluded from the solutions they deserve.

There has never been a clearer need for our work, and we are sharpened and proven after all that we have endured. I am deeply committed to making sure that we—and our movement—are the better for it.

With gratitude and shared purpose for a more just and equitable future,

Nancy Smith signature

Nancy Smith
Executive Director

You cannot do this work without doing it alongside people with disabilities and Deaf people.

— Nancy Smith, Executive Director, Activating Change

About Activating
Change

People with disabilities and Deaf people are disproportionately victimized, criminalized, and incarcerated at epidemic levels in the United States—and they have long been excluded from the solutions to these problems.

We are building a movement that harnesses disability justice, survivor advocacy, and criminal legal system reform to ensure our systems and services work for everyone.

We redefine equity by addressing the needs of people with disabilities and Deaf people and ensuring justice, safety, and healing shape their experiences.

Our work begins by ensuring everyone is seen, understood, and included, pushing for transformation that is accessible, inclusive, and grounded in disability and Deaf justice.

We strengthen legal representation, equip institutions for reform, partner for change, and embed access into justice systems and survivor services.

Our Mission

We seek to advance collective solutions at the intersection of disability justice, survivor advocacy, and criminal legal system reform to facilitate safety, healing, and freedom for people with disabilities and Deaf people. We draw upon the collective wisdom of people with lived experience of disability and Deafness, as well as those advancing change through advocacy, organizing, and movement-building.

Our Vision

We're working toward a future where safety, healing, and freedom are possible for all—a future made real when disability and Deaf justice and access are fully woven into our communities and systems.

Where We Work

Our reach spans 38 U.S. states.

U.S. map showing active states across Activating Change's reach

#JusticeForEveryBody
Campaign

#JusticeForEveryBody campaign collage with ACCESS, EQUITY, and SAFETY posters and supporting materials

In April 2025, Activating Change lost $4.5M in grant funding from the Department of Justice (DOJ).

As a young and newly-independent organization that had previously relied heavily on federal funding, the impact was immediate and severe. Like many of our peers, we faced difficult decisions; we had to shut down some of our programs, lay off staff or reduce their hours, and face new realities about our own capacity to drive change. Across the board, critical work was now in jeopardy.

The crisis gave us no choice but to swiftly act.

In the face of potentially devastating and terminal cuts, we decided to speak up rather than back down or fade away.

To go silent would have been to perpetuate the very invisibility that has long been at the core of the oppression of people with disabilities and Deaf people.

Instead, we mobilized quickly with allies, peers, and partners to develop a crisis communications plan, retooling our Justice for Every Body campaign to address the timely needs we faced.

As part of this campaign, we set out to spread awareness of the funding cuts, leveraging the opportunity to transform this crisis into increased visibility, strengthened support, and expanded cross-sector advocacy.

This intersectional campaign work spanned crisis communications, media relations, digital strategy, funder mapping and outreach, and website creation and analytics. Before this point, Activating Change had no previous history of donor engagement, a donor mailing list, or recurring small donations.

We took advantage of the opportunity to develop these funding channels, crowdsourcing more than $6.5k in the first two weeks and scheduling conversations with funders that led to significant foundation support.

Logos of foundations supporting the campaign, including Rockefeller, MacArthur, AV, Packard, Open Society Foundations, and Ventures

Across our LinkedIn profile, in just over a month, we earned: 500+ likes, 400+ reactions, and 180+ shares and reposts; 22.5K impressions (+27,795% increase month-over-month); 177 new followers (+2,600% increase month-over-month).

LinkedIn posts from supporters and partners responding to the #JusticeForEveryBody campaign

In short, we are better equipped to continue to advance solutions and reforms that facilitate safety, healing, and freedom for people with disabilities and Deaf people.

Our Impact

2025 was a year shaped by urgent action, with our organization transforming in powerful ways. Within this, it was critical that we continue to deliver the impact that guides our mission.

Despite the significant setbacks, we kept pushing to deliver what we could. In a year without these challenges, our results would have been considered excellent.

In the context of our many headwinds, they are astounding.

Everything we accomplished was achieved in spite of a situation we didn't ask to be in. Even the achievements, as impactful as they were, were limited by the critical lack of resources we suddenly faced.

Losing $4.5M in grants forced us to close more than half of our programs and lay off nearly half of our staff. The losses were real and far-reaching, impacting the entire organization.

Looking at these outcomes—both what we achieved despite 2025's hurdles and what we could have done if they had not occurred—it's evident just how critically important it is to ensure our work has the resources and support it needs to continue.

Our 2025 Impact

We often measure our work in trainings delivered, resources published, webinars held, and consultations provided, but numbers only tell a fraction of the story. Our shared practices, teachings, and resources help organizations who serve people with disabilities and Deaf people align their practices and accommodations, resulting in more consistent, reliable pathways to safety, healing, and freedom. We are facilitating sustained impact through strengthened disability-centered networks, and the 3,000+ people we trained in 2025 are only the beginning.

4
live, in-person sessions.
3,024
attendees trained across all sessions.
531
people consulted about how to better center people with disabilities and Deaf people in our work.
49
training sessions conducted.
44
educational webinars hosted.
434
consultations completed.
95
referrals and pieces of informative material provided.

Our Impact to Date

268
training sessions conducted.
30
live, in-person sessions.
18,629
attendees trained across all sessions.
3,561
people consulted about how to better center people with disabilities and Deaf people in our work.
222
educational webinars hosted.
2,833
consultations completed.
145
referrals and pieces of informative material provided.

What Didn't Happen

Staff Capacity Reduced 11 team members LAID OFF. 115+ years of combined expertise LOST.
Deaf and Disability Services Unavailable 250+ organizations LOST ACCESS to free ASL interpretation services. 250+ survivors with disabilities and Deaf survivors NOT SERVED.
Trainings and Education Eliminated 2,600+ community advocates NOT TRAINED OR CONSULTED. 80 law enforcement officers NOT TRAINED.
Program Work Suspended Responding to trafficking cases involving people with disabilities Reporting on the intersection of disability and gun violence

Fewer people trained.
Fewer organizations prepared.
More people with disabilities being left behind.

People with disabilities and Deaf people must have access to the safety, justice, and accommodations they deserve, and we won't stop until that's true everywhere.

Our Work

Our work seeks to end victimization and mass incarceration of people with disabilities. We accomplish this by building movements, cultivating leaders, supporting aligned organizations, leveraging financial resources, and advocating for change.

Specifically, our programmatic work spreads across 3 core focuses for people with disabilities and Deaf people:

1. Creating Pathways to Healing
2. Expanding Deaf Services and Advocacy
3. Ending Incarceration

Program Spotlight

Accessing Safety Initiative

As part of our Accessing Safety Initiative, we have built a national network of partnerships across disability organizations, rape crisis centers, domestic violence programs, and other key stakeholders.

The network is active in more than 150 communities across the country, and, in 2025 alone, this work spread across 7 U.S. states.

State outlines of New York, California, Ohio, Florida, Massachusetts, Maine, and Rhode Island where 2025 work spread

New York: We worked with a dual domestic violence and sexual assault victim service agency to conduct an access and safety review. A Sensory Room was built and incorporated at their organization to give survivors with disabilities space to self-regulate.

California: WEAVE and the Society for the Blind came together to address the unique needs of survivors who are blind, incorporating critical information about domestic and sexual violence into telephone readers for people with vision disabilities.

Massachusetts: At New Hope, the installation of a new wheelchair lift is underway. When implemented, this will respond to a significant increase in demand for shelter services from survivors with disabilities by increasing the number of accessible shelter beds.

Ohio, Florida, Maine, Rhode Island: Needs assessments, curriculum development, and certification standard updates to ensure survivors with disabilities and Deaf survivors receive the services they deserve.

Of the 11,000 victim service providers in the United States, fewer than 25 are "for Deaf, by Deaf."

We are working to close this gap.

Program Spotlight

Deaf Survivor Services

When Deaf survivors of domestic or sexual violence reach out for help, they are rarely met with action. From emergency and crisis lines that only accept phone calls, to domestic violence shelters without a sign language interpreter, to prosecutors who question the credibility of Deaf witnesses, these systems were never built with Deaf people in mind.

Research tells us that Deaf people experience domestic or sexual violence at rates often far exceeding those of their hearing counterparts. And, for the 71% of states in the U.S. with no "for Deaf, by Deaf" victim services programs, service barriers mean that most Deaf survivors are left to navigate crisis, trauma, and healing alone. This is abandonment.

Our "For Deaf, by Deaf" victim services, staffed by Deaf advocates, grounded in Deaf culture, and delivered in sign language, are the proven solution. We meet Deaf survivors where they are, without barriers, and with the full dignity of their language and identity honored.

Program Spotlight

Defending Access

The disparities in our criminal legal system are striking—people with disabilities and Deaf people are disproportionately criminalized and incarcerated, and these inequities are amplified for people of color and women with disabilities.

We've set out to ensure that criminal justice reform and mass incarceration solutions include disability and Deaf communities. Our Defending Access & Supporting Access work follows a two-pronged approach:

1. Equipping attorneys, including legal aids and public defenders, with the knowledge and training necessary to secure and provide the proper accommodations and modifications that their clients with disabilities and Deaf clients need.

2. Equipping community-based organizations with the guidance and information they need to support people with disabilities and Deaf people who have been impacted by the criminal legal system.

Across toolkits, training, tipsheets, reference guides, and informative videos, our efforts ensure both the community organizations supporting people with disabilities and Deaf people and the attorneys representing people with disabilities and Deaf people as they navigate the criminal legal system are aligned and connected. As a result, they are better able to work together towards collective impact, securing freedom and safety for people with disabilities and Deaf people.

Real World Results

When an attorney learns, for the first time, how to secure an accommodation for a client with an intellectual disability, that client's experience of the legal system changes, and that attorney is better equipped to accommodate every client with a disability and Deaf client who enters their office. When a domestic violence shelter installs a wheelchair lift, it shows every survivor with a disability in that community that they are welcome and safe, and that the system was built with them in mind. Each training, consultation, and resource contributes to a broader infrastructure that improves accessibility and equity in services and outcomes. This ripple effect across systems is how change happens in practice.

Publications

1.

The Mass Incarceration of People with Disabilities and Deaf People

Exploring how mass incarceration in the U.S. disproportionately impacts people with disabilities and Deaf people, highlighting stark disparities at every stage of the criminal legal system.

Download PDF
The Mass Incarceration of People with Disabilities and Deaf People — report cover
2.

Supporting Access Toolkit for Community-Based Organizations Serving People with Disabilities & Deaf People Impacted by the Criminal Legal System

Step-by-step guidance on accommodations for clients with disabilities and those who are Deaf.

Download PDF
Supporting Access Toolkit — report cover
3.

Defending Access Toolkit for Public Defenders and Other Attorneys Representing Clients with Disabilities

A step-by-step process for attorneys to secure accommodations and provide modifications for their clients who have disabilities and are Deaf.

Download PDF
Defending Access Toolkit — report cover
4.

The Case for Better Identification and Response to Trafficked Survivors with Disabilities

Analyzing law enforcement's responses to victims of human trafficking who have disabilities, examining gaps and strategies to strengthen law enforcement's response.

Download PDF
Left Behind — report cover

In the News

Logos of news outlets covering Activating Change, including The San Diego Union-Tribune, CQ, The Kansas City Star, Boston Herald, AP, Reuters, and Chicago Tribune

Financials

Metric FY2023 FY2024 FY2025
Program Expenditures $3,021,000 $3,444,000 $3,401,000
Overall Expenditures $3,390,000 $3,803,000 $3,671,000
Revenue Source FY2023 FY2024 FY2025
% from Foundations0.00%24.10%12.50%
% from Corporate Contributions0.00%0.00%0.10%
% Individuals & Crowdfunding0.00%0.40%0.30%
% from Government97.50%74.70%86.50%
% from Other Organizations2.40%0.80%0.60%

Thank our generous supporters who have supported us in this year of crisis.

Logos of Activating Change funders, including MacArthur Foundation, The Calamus Foundation, DRK Foundation, Fund for Nonviolence, and The Tow Foundation

Where We're Headed

We have spent three years building the infrastructure necessary to meaningfully advance justice and safety for people with disabilities and Deaf people. Last year tested whether that infrastructure could hold under pressure, and it did—but as we saw, it didn't come without costs. Now, investment that matches that ambition, and helps sustain it beyond any political season or government grantmaking cycle, is required.

We are seeking to rebuild what we lost in 2025, and then expand upon it: the staff that were let go, and the programs, publications, and trainings that sit unfinished. We are also seeking to deepen what we've proven works. The Accessing Safety Initiative is active in more than 150 communities; with the right support, it can reach much more. The "For Deaf, by Deaf" services model is proven; the gap between what exists and what is needed remains staggering. The Defending and Supporting Access toolkits are in the hands of attorneys and advocates; training to bring them to life must come next.

We have operated with radical transparency through a year that required determination and resilience and strained our capacity like never before. We are proud to still be here and grateful for those who helped ensure that we are. Not only are we rebuilding what Activating Change once was, we are growing a strengthened organization that has survived the impossible.

This is what we're capable of, and the support we seek will drive this impact—ensuring the experiences and needs of people with disabilities and Deaf people are integrated, addressed, and centered for years to come.

Partner with us to play a key role in building a future of safety, healing, and freedom for everyone.

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