From Zero to 1000: Accessibility, Inclusion, Connectedness with the IDJ Hub

In the last three years, the IDJ established a mission, vision, and values, designed an online Disability Justice and Violence Prevention Resource HUB, developed and piloted two evaluation tools (the community survey and the organizational survey), published 30 posts on the Hub, organized and published 12 webinars, supported the development of a healthy sexuality speaker’s Hub, shared a toolkit written by a self-advocate, accessible environmental and focus group protocols. The success of the IDJ is the cross discipline/cross field fluid membership with a large core leadership team (5-members, 90% of whom are people with disabilities) who work together through temporary action teams that convene as needed to accomplish shared outcomes and develop next steps to make progress in decreasing violence and increasing equity in the state of Indiana for people with disabilities. During all-member meetings throughout the year, IDJ learns about the field or community represented by the IDJ member themselves, the connection to the problem of multiple forms of violence, and to develop solutions and tools to implement with people with disabilities for people with disabilities.

Organizations and individuals who participate in IDJ come away with an array of skills, competencies, and a shared language to prevent violence with and for people with disabilities in their workplaces and neighborhoods. The result is iterative and multiplying the number of accessible survivor-centered disability resources. IDJ is continuously developing and implementing creative, community-building evaluation strategies to assess our effectiveness as a coalition, and the effectiveness of IDJ prevention strategies, and sharing the story of IDJ’s collaborative work via the HUB. The Hub and IDJ leadership was featured by PreventConnect in a #MeToo Prevention Townhall, and National Resource Center on Domestic Violence accessed by people across the globe in 18 countries, 28 states, and more than 50 cities across two continents. The IDJ wants to understand what we are doing well, in survivor-centered and accessible ways, and how the IDJ might continue to improve and advance the work and the leadership of people with disabilities.

We were awarded funding by Indiana Department of Health to continue to support this project through paid leadership from the Rape Prevention and Education Grant FY2021-2022. The leadership includes Cierra Olivia Thomas-Williams (Indiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence), Skye Ashton Kantola (Consultant, Self-Advocate), Tammy Themel (AccessABILITY), Jody Powers (Consultant, Self-Advocate), Jennifer Milharcic (Consultant, Self-Advocate), and Haleigh Rigger (Indiana Coalition to End Sexual Assault and Human Trafficking). Together the leadership team works with the advisory council toward creating protective environments that enable thriving for people who are made vulnerable by systems inequity.

Post written by: Cierra Olivia Thomas Williams, IDJ Co-Founder, Co-Leader, Prevention Specialist at Indiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence