Prevention Spotlight: Nicole Kass Colvin

Disability Justice and Violence Prevention Spotlight: Nicole Kass Colvin

Indiana Disability Justice periodically highlights collaborators and partners across the country who are centering people with disabilities and disability justice in the work to end violence. We hope that you will read all about Nicole Cass Colvin who is practicing at the Ohio Alliance to End Sexual Violence. In this interview Nicole walks us through what disability justice means in her practice and where the field could use improvement and redirection.

Ohio Alliance to End Sexual Violence

The Ohio Alliance to End Sexual Violence serves as Ohio’s rape crisis coalition. State sexual assault coalitions serve as the main training and technical assistance provider for rape crisis centers on best practices in programming and administration, and they advocate on behalf of rape crisis centers and the survivors they serve in public policy advocacy efforts at the state and federal levels.

Where you practice primary prevention & disability Justice? I work with the Ohio Alliance to End Sexual Violence where our mission is “As Ohio’s statewide coalition, OAESV uses an anti-oppression lens to advocate for comprehensive responses and rape crisis services for survivors and to empower communities to prevent sexual violence.” As the Coordinator of Community Responses at OAESV, I primarily work with Sexual Assault Response Teams (SART) and Coordinated Community Response Teams (CCRT) across Ohio’s 88 counties, which may be seen as intervention, but I believe can be vital in primary prevention. SARTs and CCRTs are spaces where we can explore making our communities as safe and cared for as possible, and have people at the table to make change happen. Often this looks like focusing around the community level, but communities can get creative with it and really make impacts that span across levels.

What do you like to do for fun? Hobbies?

Read a lot of fantasy novels, listen to a lot of podcasts, get outdoors, explore the arts, and spend time with my chihuahua pug, Rizzo.

I am a white cis-female, nearly 30, with medium length wavy hair and big burgundy cat-eye style glasses. In this picture, I am smiling, have on red lipstick, a beige and gray sweater, and have my arm on my hip.

About Nicole

After studying psychology, I started in the anti-violence field in 2015 as a legal advocate in rural Alaska. Since then, I’ve gotten to work with some disability-serving agencies, and with building up a new sexual assault program in Indiana. Currently, I work as the Coordinator of Community Responses at the Ohio Alliance to End Sexual Violence. I live in Ohio, but in my town, one side of the street is Indiana and the other side of the street is Ohio, so I feel very passionate about addressing sexual violence and oppression in both Indiana and Ohio. Email: colvin@oaesv.org

What does disability justice mean to you as you practice primary prevention?

Primary prevention is about creating a world where sexual violence doesn’t exist or is unconscionable. We know that sexual violence can happen to anyone, and we know that sexual violence is a tool of power and control that thrives in the midst of inequity, lack of accessibility, and oppression. As a society and as an anti-violence movement, we don’t adequately care for people with disabilities. Due to the ways that our systems are structured, people with disabilities are disparately impacted by inadequate income, housing, education, food stability, or care, and even more so throughout the pandemic.

Primary prevention is also about centering, empowering, and uplifting people with disabilities. Speaking to my own mistakes in this field, how often do we put outreach to disability-serving organizations on the to-do list and never get to it? How often do we do prevention programming, with curriculum made for, by, and presented to neurotypical people without disabilities? How often do we as organizations have requirements for staff and volunteers that may exclude or drive out people with disabilities? With the help of my incredible colleagues at OAESV (shout-out to Olivia Montgomery, Sarah Ferrato, and Caitlin Burke!), I’ve learned that if we really want to practice primary prevention, we have to let go of the idea that we need to “reach specific communities” (which tends to mean our services are designed around a specific population – likely a population that we are most comfortable with), and rather be intentional in each and every thing that we do to ensure that we are really being proactive about ending violence to those most impacted by it. For me, this has been a reframing. Instead of “maybe consider having disability-serving agencies on your SART” or “here are some tips on a specific subject, and by the way, here’s how to make it accessible”, we might reframe it as “let’s explore how sexual violence most impacts your community, hear directly from survivors most impacted, and build our systems and resources off of that information.”

Notable quotable from my colleague Sarah who assisted me with primary prevention aspects of this post: “Primary prevention cannot happen if we don’t ensure that marginalized folks are included in the brainstorming, decision-making, and implementation processes of education and outreach. Shifting social norms includes shifting community attitudes about who deserves safety, dignity, and respect. If the answer isn’t a resounding ALL PEOPLE, we cannot begin to address the ‘how.’”

Primary prevention also means taking a hard look at our communities and our services and both talking about and engaging in actionable steps to make them more equitable, accessible, and accepting. This can be as big as changing systems, and as small as having conversations with folks in our communities about how different actions and words impact our neighbors with disabilities. It can even mean asking for someone’s Venmo, CashApp, or PayPal to give some extra cash to help them meet a need or compensate them for emotional/intellectual labor.

Does anything about primary prevention need to change to bring disability justice to the world?

Yes – I don’t think there are enough conversations about disability justice within primary prevention. Again, I think we often design things based on a specific population and then as an afterthought add in “others.” For primary prevention to be truly effective, especially around disability justice, we need to be thinking of intersectionality. This also means we need to be creating environments where people with disabilities are included in giving and receiving primary prevention, including exploring the barriers that our organizations have that may impact people with disabilities in employment, volunteering, or consulting. It also means being intentional about recruiting volunteers, employees, leadership, and consultants. Some examples include exploring education (or even heavy lifting!) requirements in job postings, providing employees with plenty of Paid Time Off and other benefits, and paying people for their emotional and intellectual labor.

Additionally, I know I often thought of primary prevention as doing school programming, teaching consent, building developmental assets, etc. These are all great things (find out more about needed changes to these aspects of primary prevention here).  However, it’s not the full picture of primary prevention, which also means actively building equity and bridges over barriers, both in our communities and in our systems. We also need to be more open about ableism, eugenics, and social Darwinism in our current state. People with disabilities are not disposable and if we really want to live out our missions within the anti-violence field, we need to be active in centering our care.

Do you have a favorite prevention activity or strategy you use to achieve disability justice?

I participated in a training a few years back where a ground rule was “Step Up/Step Back” (please note that this language is unintentionally ableist and Make Space/Take Space is an alternative with more inclusive language), meaning if you are someone who is normally really quiet, to challenge yourself to speak up in the training, and if you’re normally more talkative to let others speak. I think of this often in terms of primary prevention, anti-oppression work, and disability justice. I like to incorporate intentionality and pause and think, “Do I have something to add here that people need to hear, or is it a time for me to pause and make space?” Often in terms of disability justice, this is a balance of speaking up in spaces where my voice may be received because of my power, privilege, or relationships, and de-centering myself where my presence may be more disempowering to people with disabilities. My advocacy work and collaboration with IDJ have shown me how important it is to center people with disabilities – “nothing about us without us.” In my advocacy, this often looks like hearing what survivors with disabilities are saying and when they feel safe to be centered, it can be a conversation of, “Hey, would you want to get involved with IDJ?”

What are some resources that you have created or that you just love that you want to share (articles, toolkits, etc.)?

There are so many resources that I love but a few favorite or recent resources relevant to disability justice include:

Are you available for consulting?

I don’t do private consulting at this time, but do provide training and technical assistance across Ohio. I highly recommend working with and paying consultants, especially people with disabilities; Black, Indigenous, and People of Color; and survivors.

Some of my favorite consultants/places to connect with consultants at this time include:

  • Indiana Disability Justice (indisabilityjustice.org, indisabilityjustice@gmail.com)
  • Sexual Assault Advocacy Network (saancommunity.org)
  • Ohio Women of Color Caucus
  • Olga Trujillo (olgatrujillo.com)
  • Bianca Laureano (biancalaureano.com)
  • Olivia Montgomery and Breanna Allen (livwoke.com, livwoke@gmail.com)

How can people reach you? ncolvin@oaesv.org

5 Political Campaigning Tips for Candidates With Disabilities

 

Many people with disabilities want to see changes in their communities. However, running for office to enact those changes can seem like a daunting task in a society with so many barriers. But people with disabilities can make a positive impact by getting involved in politics. And with resources from advocacy organizations like Indiana Disability Justice, running for office and winning is entirely possible! If you’re interested in launching your own campaign, follow these steps to turn your dream of running for office into reality.

 

Register for the Ballot

 

First, you’ll need to research ballot access rules for candidates in your state. Each state has its own rules, and you’ll have to meet every requirement and submit all of the necessary paperwork to earn a spot on the ballot. Once you’ve taken care of these tasks, it’s time to assemble your team!

 

Choose Your Team

 

You can’t run your campaign entirely on your own – you need a great team around you! Even if you have a limited budget, Aristotle recommends hiring a fundraiser, a campaign treasurer or accountant, and a voter contact manager at a minimum. You could also consider bringing a campaign consultant or digital marketing expert on board.

 

Before choosing your team, you’ll want to establish an organized system so that you can keep track of staff productivity and even pay them easily. Choosing platforms that manage field personnel effectively through GPS mapping can give you better visibility of their activities on the campaign trail, which, in turn, makes it easier to schedule staff movements and shuffle tasks when needed.

 

Finalize Your Platform

 

You might have vague ideas for key policy items in your platform, but now is the time to stamp out the details. By conducting research on local voters’ positions and concerns, you’ll be able to determine which issues are most important to the people in your community. This will help you polish your platform and decide which policy proposals to highlight in your advertising strategy.

 

Promote Your Campaign Online

 

Today, political campaigning has gone digital. While print, TV, and radio advertising still matter, campaigning online is a low-cost option that will expand your reach. You’ll need to build a campaign website, set up social media accounts for your campaign, send out an email newsletter with campaign updates, and invest in paid advertising across popular social media platforms. You can also use social media to network with organizations that fight for disability justice and let them know about your campaign!

 

Plan Accessible Campaign Events

 

You can move forward with a variety of fundraising methods, but fundraising events will allow you to spend time with your potential future constituents face-to-face. Get in touch with venues in advance to discuss your necessary accommodations. And to ensure your events are accessible for all who wish to attend, EventMB recommends planning for ease of movement, providing appropriate signage and interpreters for those who are visually impaired or deaf, and making sure that service animals can accompany their owners.

 

At events, you can form real connections with your voters. While it is not a requirement, you can even share your story of living with a disability and how it has informed your political views and overall campaign platform.

 

Today, the voices of people with disabilities are needed to influence change. By getting involved with the political process, people with disabilities can shift policy and transform society for the better. With these tips, you’ll be well prepared to get your own campaign off the ground!

 

Are you looking to connect with other people with disabilities or find supportive resources? Indiana Disability Justice is working for education, policy change, and advocacy. Subscribe for email updates through our website today!

 

Photo via Pexels

About the Author:

Ed Carter has worked with clients of all ages, backgrounds and incomes. About 10 years into his career, he saw a need for financial planners who specialize in helping individuals and families living with disabilities. www.ablefutures.org

Disability Justice 101: A Webinar Review

 

The Fireweed Collective along with the Spoonie Collective out of Los Angeles presented a webinar titled Disability Justice 101. The Fireweed Collective offers mental health education and mutual aid to help change the harm of abuse and oppression created by the mental health system. They are working with the Spoonie Collective which is a group of LGBTQIA+ individuals with disabilities, neurodiversity, and chronic illnesses. The Spoonie Collective offers in-person and virtual workshops and panels on the intersection of race, gender, disability justice (DJ), feminist theory, and more. This webinar covers basic terminology, disability theory, disability justice vs disability rights, disability movers and shakers, disability justice in the time of COVID-19 and becoming a DJ accomplice and is hosted by Tasha Fierce and Laurent Corralez.

Tasha describes themselves as queer, Black, disabled, nonbinary femme who is a writer, artist, crisis doula, facilitator and mystic. Their website is tashafierce.com. Laurent describes himself as a physically disabled, trans, latinx community organizer and zinester.

Definitions

The first item discussed was defining Disability Justice and what it looks like. A picture was shown to define DJ. It had the following words: intersectionality, leadership of those most impacted, anti-capitalism, cross-movement organizing, wholeness, sustainability, cross-disability solidarity, interdependence, collective access and collective liberation. Sins Invalid states that DJ looks like valuing each body and the power it yields. It holds that each body is unique, essential, has strengths and needs that must be met. Bodies are powerful because of our complexities not despite them. Finally, DJ recognizes that all bodies are confined by ability, race, gender, sexuality, class, nation state, religion, and more, and we cannot separate them.

The next few terms that were defined included ableism, disability and invisible disability. The Center for Disability Rights defines ableism as a set of beliefs or practices that devalue and discriminate against people with disabilities. It assumes that people with disabilities need to be “fixed.” The definition of disability is taken from Sins Invalid. It states, “We define disability broadly to include people with physical impairments, people who belong to a sensory minority, people with emotional disabilities, people with cognitive challenges, and those with chronic/severe illness.” Some disabilities are considered invisible since they are not overtly obvious. They are defined by The Center for Disability Rights as, “a physical, mental or neurological condition that limits a person’s movements, senses, or activities that is invisible to the onlooker.”

The final 3 terms defined were chronic illness, neurodiversity and trigger. A chronic illness usually refers to a health condition or disease that has persistent effects, comes with time, and lasts more than three months. Psychology Today defines neurodiversity as the idea that neurological differences like autism and ADHD are the result of normal, natural variation in the human genome. This is not a universally accepted definition but is gaining support from science. Finally, a trigger is a stimulus that causes feelings of past trauma. It may illicit feeling of overwhelming sadness, anxiety, panic, or flashbacks.

Disability Theories

After these definitions were explained, several disability theories were shared. These theories attempt to illustrate how a disability can affect different aspects of life such as energy, stress, and vulnerabilities. The two theories that stood out were Spoon Theory and Fork Theory.

Spoon Theory was developed by Christine Miserandino to explain how disability or chronic illness can reduce mental and physical energy. According to this theory, a person wakes up with a certain amount of spoons for the day. Each task performed, as well as pain and fatigue, takes away a spoon. When all the spoons are used, a person’s energy is gone. The idea is that the pain, fatigue, or daily struggles can use spoons (energy) that ordinarily could be used on other tasks.

The Fork theory is a corollary to the Spoon Theory meant to help neurodivergent and neurotypical individuals explain how stressors affect their disability. In this theory, a fork is any stressor that is stabbed into an individual. Stressors can be big or small. An individual’s fork limit is different each day. When the limit is reached, the next stick no matter how big or small will set the person off. This explains why a little annoyance can evoke a disproportionate reaction.

Disability Rights vs Disability Justice

It is important to understand the difference between Disability Rights and Disability Justice. Disability Rights has to do with working within the legal system to ensure personal rights. To be able to access these rights the person with the disability must know that they are entitled to the mandated right and may have to fight for them. The claim to fame of the Disability Rights movement is the Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA, of 1990.

While the ADA is a legal solution, it does not address societal attitudes towards people with disabilities. Collaborators of DJ movements understand the ableist supremacy and white privilege that has been created with respect to other systems of oppression. It is commonly acknowledged that people with disabilities are treated as disposable. The machine perpetuating these attitudes must be dismantled. This is where Disability Justice comes in as it seeks to honor people’s access needs and is not performative. DJ seeks equity in all areas of life and society.

Movers and Shakers

There are many movers and shakers that have played a part in the Disability Rights and Disability Justice movements. Here are a few that the presenters shared. First up was Sins Invalid. This project grows and features artists with disabilities centering on artists of color and LGBTQ/gender-variant who have been historically marginalized. They work to shift the paradigm of what is “sexy” and “normal.” The second Organization mentioned is Disability Justice Culture Club. It is a house in East Oakland where persons with disabilities who belong to the BIPOC community hold events, meetings and meals.

The Disability Visibility Project was the third organization mentioned. This online community creates, shares, and amplifies disability media and culture. They believe narratives from people with disabilities matter and have created media from oral histories if those with disabilities. They also publish items from the perspective of people with disabilities that have to do with ableism, intersectionality, culture, media and politics. Next to be mentioned was the Deaf Queer Resource Center founded by Drago Renteria who is a Deaf queer/trans activist. It went live on the web September 1, 1995.

The Kindred Southern Healing Collective was established by people of color in the southern United State after hurricane Katrina. It was in response to trauma, violence and social conditions in the south. Members created Good Medicine, a recording of interviews with southern healers and activists.

The final mover and shaker highlighted was The Los Angeles Spoonie Collective, a group of individuals with disabilities, neurodivergent and chronically ill LGBTQIA+ members. They have programs which supports this community. The Limitless Letters Pen Pal Program pairs incarcerated LGBTQIA+ individuals with pen pals. The collective’s Care Web website which tracks members needs and how members can help one another. They also provide workshops and panel discussions on the intersections of race, gender, and disability, disability justice, feminist theory, and more.

COVID-19 and Disability Justice

Disability Justice 101 concluded with the effects of COVID-19 on the disability community. The pandemic has brought to light systemic inequities including the brokenness of our healthcare system, a lack of support for the unemployed and the failure of the nuclear family. Officials and politicians have also called on the vulnerable to be sacrificed. People with disabilities have been deprioritized in triage, have been put last in line for ventilators, are disproportionately given DNR status, and have had their quality of life devalued. Throughout the country there have been letter writing campaigns to make healthcare institutions value and treat individuals with disabilities as they would an able-bodied person.

Historically, marginalized groups have helped themselves through mutual aid. This is a broad term that can involve mercenaries or anti-government establishments, but for disability justice’s purpose it is described as coming together to meet basic survival needs that the system cannot or will not provide. Mutual aid is a form of political participation to care for one another and change political conditions by building new social relations that are more survivable. There were three types of mutual aids given, promotion of self and community care and health prioritization, growing anti-capitalism, and care networks or webs.

Becoming a DJ Accomplice

Finally, there was a discussion on three ways to be a disability justice accomplice. The presenter acknowledged that this is not an exhaustive list. First, check your privilege and use it. This may look like standing up to discrimination (seen or implied) within your social group or place of employment. The second way to act is to evaluate and use the skills you have to empower or help someone with a disability. For example, if you are a lawyer, help or connect someone who can help a person navigate getting on disability. Lastly, build a mutual aid map. This is a visual representation of how different groups and individuals are helping each other.

People with disabilities face many challenges. Practicing and promoting disability justice is essential to empowerment and reducing marginalization of the community of people with disabilities. The Spoonie Collective did just that through their Disability Justice 101 webinar. They defined what disability is and the many kinds of disabilities. Several theories were explained to conceptualize disabilities and then a discussion of disability justice and disability rights. The webinar concluded with illustrating the disparity of those with disabilities during the COVID pandemic. Society needs more programs like this with greater visibility to de-marginalize people with disabilities.

Picture of Jennifer Milharcic wearing a pink top. She has an open smile and short brownish hair.

(Picture of Jennifer Milharcic wearing a pink top. She has an open smile and short brownish hair.) Jennifer Milharcic has Cerebral Palsy and is an independent contractor with the Indiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Indiana Disability Justice. She loves to hang out with friends and her dog Becca.

Supporting Survivors with Cognitive and Developmental Disabilities, a Training

Supporting Survivors with Cognitive and Developmental Disabilities

Haleigh Rigger
Haleigh Rigger looks straight into the camera with a slight smile. Haleigh is wearing a heather gray sweater, is wearing cat eye shaped glasses and has long violet hair.

On June 3rd I had the opportunity to present strategies for supporting survivors with cognitive and developmental disabilities thanks to a partnership between my agency, Indiana Coalition to End Sexual Assault and Human Trafficking (ICESAHT), and the Bureau of Quality Improvement Services (BQIS), a division of the Family and Social Services Administration (FSSA). This training focused on how direct support professionals, case managers, and their leadership teams can best support survivors after they disclose. We also discussed strategies for building trust and rapport and navigating the tricky waters of maintaining a survivor’s privacy while also following state and agency mandates in reporting. Lastly, we invite disability service providers to review their protocols, engage self-advocates in conversations about sexual wellness and violence, and incorporate trauma-informed principles into their organizational culture. You can access the recorded training here and below.

As individuals with developmental disabilities are sexually assaulted at a rate 7x higher than folks without disabilities (NPR, 2018), it is crucial that we in the anti-violence movement partner with caregivers and disability service agencies in responding to and preventing violence against folks with disabilities. Even more important, those of us who are professionals in this movement must center people with disabilities in our anti-violence work and pass the mic to those who are most impacted. It takes multi-disciplinary teams, that are led by and for people with disabilities, to holistically serve survivors and prevent violence from happening in the first place. As my friends and colleagues at Indiana Disability Justice say, “Nothing about us, without us.”

A list of 17 webinars featuring centering disabled people and members of Indiana Disability Justice is available at this link.

Post authored by Haleigh Rigger, Indiana Coalition to End Sexual Violence and Human Trafficking and Indiana Disability Justice Leadership

Posted by Cierra Olivia Thomas-Williams, Indiana Disability Justice Leadership, Indiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence