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  4. Grassroots Project

Grassroots Project

Grassroots Project; Engage, Connect, Advocate

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Launched in 2023, ACL’s Grassroots Project provides people with disabilities and their support networks access to tools, resources, information, and peer-to-peer networking to help them ensure the perspectives, priorities, and preferences of disabled people are reflected in disability policies and service systems in their states and communities.

This project builds upon other ACL programs that have supported the disability community in advancing self-advocacy, such as activities supporting the implementation of the HCBS Settings Rule and Partners in Policymaking.

Project Background and Goals

Nothing About Us Without Us

Many people with disabilities rely on a range of services and supports from various systems to live independently in the community. Navigating the various systems that provide services and supports is very complex, making it hard to even get access to those services. For those who have been successful in gaining access, oftentimes their services and supports fall short of their intended purpose of assisting each person in meeting their goals and leading self-determined lives in the community. People with disabilities and their families often don’t know where to turn for help, which places people with disabilities at greater risk for institutionalization.

People with disabilities must be at the center of work to improve these systems. The Grassroots Project supports people with disabilities and disability advocates who want to make change where change is needed.

The project aims to equip people with disabilities and the people who support them with the knowledge they need to navigate the highly complex policy, practice, and financial systems that drive human services and supports. Specifically, the project will:

  • Develop structures, processes, and relationships that build the next generation of cross-disability, cross-generational, and culturally diverse leaders.
  • Connect, grow, and strengthen networks to support each other and share the skills and knowledge to advocate for improvements in the quality of community living.
  • Support outreach and education to help people with disabilities stay informed about policies that affect them, understand how systems work, and how to effect change.

To achieve these goals, the project will partner with national, state, and local organizations in every state and territory — including ACL-funded disability network entities — to advance community living. By bringing together different groups at different levels, the Grassroots Project will help to build a unique infrastructure of collaborative advocacy.

Ultimately, the project aims to achieve two major outcomes: increasing the skills of advocates at the ground level and strengthening the voice of advocates with policymakers at the federal, state, and local levels.

Project Partners

This project’s National Advocacy and Action Coalition is comprised of national disability organizations that support advocacy through their affiliates and by fostering engagement and connection in the disability community.

The project’s State Advocacy Partnership Group is made up of national associations that represent state agencies and bi-directional communication and strategy.

 


Last modified on 11/04/2024


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