Our Approach

People with disabilities and Deaf people are victimized, criminalized, and incarcerated at epidemic levels in the United States. But, they have long been excluded from the solutions to these problems. Activating Change is centering people with disabilities and Deaf people and the safety and justice issues they face in social justice movements.

 

We believe disability, survivor advocacy, and criminal legal system reform movements play critical roles in securing freedom and safety for people with disabilities and Deaf people. Yet, none of these fields are currently working to systematically address the high rates of victimization, over-policing and over-incarceration of people with disabilities. These fields are disconnected, often mis-aligned, and lack the capacity needed to work together toward collective impact.

We are building a field at the intersections.

Activating Change brings together people and organizations across the country working in disability, survivor advocacy, and criminal legal system reform movements. We foster alignment, build capacity, and support greater coordination across social justice movements to realize our goals of freedom and healing – not harm and punishment - for people with disabilities and Deaf people. We collaborate with disability and Deaf communities across the country and work in close partnership with government and advocacy leaders to implement change.

Our Approach to Field Building

  • Amplify the Voices of People with Disabilities + Deaf People

    We support the leadership of people with disabilities and Deaf people and lift up the voices of those most impacted, especially from Black, brown, and Indigenous communities.

  • Convene Leaders and Organizations Across Fields

    We bring together people from across the country working in disability, survivor advocacy, and criminal legal system reform movements. We help them establish shared goals and strategies - aligned around disability and racial equity - and build alliances for collective impact.

  • Strengthen the Capacity of Organizations

    We help organizations build their capacity to end victimization and incarceration of people with disabilities and Deaf people. We provide a range of supports from backbone infrastructure to integrating a disability and language justice lens to developing specialized strategies.

  • Pilot Innovative Solutions

    When problems are entrenched and solutions aren’t readily achievable through community capacity-building efforts, we use our capacity to implement innovative programming at scale, often by using technology.

  • Mobilize and Share Financial Resources

    We leverage our access to funding and regrant money to grassroots organizations working toward shared goals. We also work with public and private funders to prioritize funding for people with disabilities and to make their grantmaking more accessible

  • Advocate for Change

    We advocate for supportive legislation, policy, and practices. We promote disability-centered solutions and are working to upend harmful narratives about people with disabilities that shape public policy and practice.

We also work within systems and with system actors to reduce disparities and adopt strategies that promote autonomy, healing, and freedom for people with disabilities and Deaf people. While our long-term vision is to see divestment from harmful systems, specifically the criminal legal system and other “protective systems,” we do work within these systems. We believe this is necessary given hundreds of thousands of people with disabilities and Deaf people who are currently ensnarled in these systems. Importantly, as we continue to engage in these systems, we are increasingly directing our efforts toward building community-based solutions.

Ableism, audism, and racism are drivers of the injustices people with disabilities and Deaf people experience and also at the root of why they are excluded from solutions. Activating Change is working to end oppressive practices and creating accessible and affirming solutions driven by racial, disability, and language justice.