What do you like to do for fun? Hobbies?
Play with my dog Clyde, play cards with my Husband, watch documentaries, and explore the Olympic National Forest which is right in my back yard!
What does disability justice mean to you as you practice primary prevention?
From my experience, this comes down to two things: Inclusive services and education, and dispelling myths about the autonomy and sexuality of people with disabilities.
What are some resources that you have created or that you just love that you want to share (articles, toolkits, etc.)?
- American Progress Article: https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/disability/news/2021/02/12/495746/sexual-violence-disability-community/
- NPR Article: https://www.npr.org/2018/01/08/570224090/the-sexual-assault-epidemic-no-one-talks-about
- Specific to the intersection of blackness and disability: Disability / Blackness resources – Google Docs
Do you have a favorite prevention activity or strategy you use to achieve disability justice?
- Education both within the community and to their counterparts. Because violence, especially gender violence, is a matter of control, ableism adds a further layer to our prevention efforts. If we do not make dismantling ableism, and other constructs of power, a core tenant of violence prevention education, we will not do justice for this community. In addition, providing comprehensive sex education to people with disabilities that incorporates components of self-advocacy and what constitutes abuse, is critically important.
- I would also love to share a unique work group that operates as a recovery practice for all survivors of violence, but is especially empowering for survivors who are disabled. As a way to practice reclaiming control, consent, and respect, survivors work with service dogs; giving commands and watching the animals respond to their request produces a chance for survivors to reclaim their autonomy in a therapeutic environment.
Does anything about primary prevention need to change to bring disability justice to the world?
Many community-placed organizations fall into the trap of what Vu Le has called trickle-down-community-engagement. Vu Le describes this as organizations who (1) offer services because they can, not because they were asked for or needed, (2) educate and advertise their services but find that sectors of their community still choose not to engage, and (3) either do not measure their impact, or when they do, find little to no successful impact. To put it simply, “you can’t just give three drops of water to your rainbow carrots, wonder why they are not growing, and then complain about the lack of color in your salad” (Vu Le).
Earlier, I emphasized the description of these organizations as community-placed. This categorization comes from one of my professors at Harvard, Harry Harding, who discussed the difference between organizations as described above, who are simply placed in a community, versus organizations and services that are based in a community. Community-based organizations are informed by their community, intentional about services, and inclusive both within the organization and in how they discuss the issue and engage with their community. In order for sexual violence prevention to be effective within the disabled community, we must recognize that people with disabilities can make their own decisions and that they are not sexless.
Harmful myths often close the door to working with the community to educate about consent, self-advocacy, and safe sex. An example of this is demonstrated in a South Carolina middle school who invited my prior organization (shortly before I worked there) to come and give sexual violence prevention talks to their students. They had the prevention educator teach the same presentation to one grade at a time, one period after the next, the whole day. However, this disrupted the students in special education as it conflicted with their schedule. So instead of finding a different option, or tailoring the presentation to be inclusive of the learning styles of ALL students, the school had the special education class sit in on every single talk, the entire day. Not only did the school send the message to the special education students, and the rest of the school, that they were an after-thought, but they did not give the prevention educator the information and tools needed to provide a presentation that worked with all student’s needs. This event, reported to me by my organization when I came on board, made it evident how primary prevention efforts were missing the mark in serving the disabled community.
Where you practice primary prevention & disability Justice (location, organization, which levels of the SEM, typically):
I worked in primary prevention of sexual violence for three years as the Prevention and Education Coordinator for an adult crisis center in Charleston, SC. I also served for two years as the Chair of a three-county wide Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) in the low-country of South Carolina. Currently, I work for the Medical University of South Carolina’s National Crime Victim Center which is housed in their Department of Psychiatry. In my role as the Program Coordinator, I work on Project BEST, a state-wide collaborative effort to use innovative community-based dissemination, training, and implementation methods to dramatically increase the capacity of every community in South Carolina to deliver evidence-supported mental health treatments (ESTs) to every abused and traumatized child who needs them. In addition, I work in a similar capacity under a grant for the National Mass Violence Victimization Resource Center’s Training and Technical Assistance division. My violence prevention and advocacy work has continued both within this work and outside it as I independently pursue research on community-based primary prevention, response, and resilience.
Are you available for consulting?
Yes! Working with diverse populations eager to learn about and collaborate on program improvement and community engagement is my passion. My area of concentration focuses on violence prevention, particularly sexual violence, and how we can create intentional, equitable, and sustainable community prevention and response strategies and services.
How can people reach you?
sctwade@gmail.com or LinkedIn, Shelby Wade. Email is preferred.
Shelby’s biography:
Shelby first worked with people with disabilities in high school as a peer support for Integrated Learning Students with a range of disabilities from various cancers; autism spectrum disorders; blind, deaf, and hard of hearing; and many others. These students helped spark her interest in working with the community. Following high school, she worked with cognitively impaired students at supplemental education centers before becoming a behavior technician at an autism services organization. During college, earning a bachelors in sociology from Sonoma State in CA, Shelby became the lead behavior technician, the community group lead, and the trainer of all new employees on Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) for her organization. She won awards for passion and for Interventionist of The Year. While she enjoyed the work, Shelby wanted to move on to spaces that allowed her to empower people with disabilities from a violence prevention standpoint, something she connected with through personal experiences. After moving across the country, Shelby began working at a local rape crisis center in South Carolina. There she learned where prevention work was failing the disabled community and where disability justice organizations needed support in violence prevention. During this time, she served as the chair of a three-county-wide sexual assault response team (SART) and went back to school to get her graduate certificate in Nonprofit Management from Harvard.
Shelby currently works for the National Crime Victims Center on two grants, one with Project BEST which seeks to provide evidence-based treatments to children and their families across South Carolina, and another under the National Mass Violence Victimization Resource Center where she is helping communities prepare for, respond to, and build resiliency after a mass violence event. Shelby’s passion for this work continues in her free time as she continues to research prevention efforts, write papers, teach, and provide consultation. Currently, Shelby is focused on neurobiology of trauma; inclusion as it relates to community engagement in violence prevention; program improvement in sexual violence organizations; and non-acute comprehensive medical advocacy for survivors of sexual violence.
A bit about her personally… Shelby is the wife of 8 years to her amazing partner, Jacob, who is an active duty member of the US Coast Guard. She is a dog mom to a 3-year-old, rescued, blue heeler mix named Clyde who is the best good boy there is. Shelby lives in the Pacific Northwest and enjoys going on hikes, listening to records, watching documentaries, and taking bubble baths!
Shelby Wade is the author of her interview. Cierra Olivia Thomas Williams is the interviewer and posted this to IDJ.
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