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

Congratulations to IDJ, because in WE ARE THREE years old!!! [confetti explosions]

In December 2020, we welcomed more than ONE THOUSAND VISITORS from around the world. We started with an idea in 2017 that grew into a very successful Patreon Community in 2018. We needed to transition to the online Indiana Disability Justice and Violence Prevention Resource Hub in 2020 to reflect the growth in our capacity and reflect our commitment to continue to promote and enhance connectedness across movements, sectors, fields, and communities. We remain inclusive community owned and co-operated with the functionality of a website.

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  

tw. Ableism

My body doesn’t work – they say –
to please the male gaze.

My body doesn’t work
to cope with the 8h-per-day
working schedule.

My body doesn’t work
to be drafted,
to give birth
or to please
whoever demands
to be pleased.

My body is a dividing line
between my light
and the world.

But my body works
to dance, badly and clumsily,
under the rain
when nobody is watching.

It works
to punch,
to save itself.

It works
to grow fruits,
to get muddy,
to taste the wind.

My body works
as a lair
for non-normative
pleasures.

While my sex is a hibernating winter,
my nerves are a hieroglyph
of orgasms
randomly spread
throughout the skin.

My body doesn’t serve any purpose,
it doesn’t serve anybody
because it is not built for serfdom.

No     body     is.

My body is built
to enjoy witchcraft,
to hug the others,
to give birth to fantasies,
to swallow life until it’s over.

My body serves ME.
I am its purpose.
It works to heal me.
To heal with and for my people.

A purpose for which society,
the same one that has always named
and built us disabled,
has never been able
at all.

Title: TW. Ableism.
Poet Name: Cénix C. Callejo.

Long story short, this poem was written in 2017, at a homeless day shelter, to remind myself that I –a violence survivor- as well as any person in any difficult or similar situation, was worthy and deserved the job I was denied, the home I wasn’t able to afford and the safety I wasn’t guaranteed with. I hope others can find comfort in it and it can help them to navigate their own paths whenever it gets tricky, and I also hope it can be a tiny contribution towards a much needed social change.

Callejo García C. C. (2020). TW. Ableism. Disability Justice & Violence Prevention Resource Hub. Retrieved from: https://indisabilityjustice.org/insert-publication-link

Name: Cénix C. Callejo.
Pronouns: They/them.

Bio: Cénix is a biologist and an environmental activist. They are a MSc in Biology, a Wildlife Rehabilitator and Environmental Educator Specialized in Grassroots Community Conservation, at different farmers and indigenous-led conservation projects. They have studied and volunteered/worked within the Environmental Field at Spain, UK, Greece, Peru and Ecuador.

Besides Wildlife Protection, Cénix has also been and is actively involved within several activism fields, regarding Mental Health, Disability, Survivorship, Homelessness and Transfeminism, amongst others.

After several episodes of male violence and mobbing linked to a severe work accident at their last job placement in 2019, they are currently being hosted at Spain, recovering while working and expanding their studies, seeking to expand their working opportunities in order to be able to fully afford again their own room and life expenses.

Photo:

[PHOTO DESCRIPTION: A frontal picture of Cénix, a white person with black curly hair to the shoulders, from head to knees. They are at a forest. Their right hand is grabbing a branch tree, their left arm is hanging. They are wearing grey sports trousers, a colourful shirt with flowers and a pink sweater.  They are smiling and wearing black and white glasses. They are also wearing a red fanny pack with a pin of a yellow daffodil. There is a big rock behind them and green trees at the back.]

Where to read more: You can find more about their poetry (in Spanish) or contact them at their Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/Oniroteca/

The Importance of Disability Awareness for Change

This image shows a meter from Low, Moderate, High, Maximum measuring the level of awareness. The red dial is on maximum awareness.
This image shows a meter measuring the level of awareness from low, moderate, high, to maximum. The red dial appears to be moving quickly on maximum awareness.

March is disability awareness month in Indiana and Indiana Disability Justice realizes that awareness is a great first step to improve the lives of people with disabilities. Awareness is important because we need to acknowledge ableism and the discrimination that people with disabilities face so that we can reduce and eliminate them. The awareness that people with disabilities are just as human as anyone else is necessary in order to fully include people into our society, communities, workplaces, neighborhoods, and peer groups. Even though we need more than awareness, awareness is a factor in ending violence against people with disabilities. With all this in mind, IDJ will be publishing different kinds of artistic pieces that showcases the perspectives of disabled people. Some of these pieces will relate directly to disabilities. However, some of them will not have anything to do with disability. This is because some of our artists want to remind us that they are more than their disabilities. Please visit us often to grow your perspective!

Post credit: Jody Powers, IDJ Hub Coordinator and IDJ Leadership Action Team member and Cierra Olivia Thomas Williams, IDJ Co-Leader and IDJ Leadership Action Team member