Headwaters Walk for Justice
Anniversary--Profile of 10 Year Walkers
Advocating Change Together
(ACT) is a grassroots disability rights organization run by and
for people with developmental and other disabilities. ACT’s
mission is to help people across disabilities to see themselves
as part of a larger disability rights movement and make connections
to other civil and human rights struggles.
What Does This Mean -- in
Human Terms?
People with developmental
disabilities are treated differently than those with other disabilities,
by the greater community –which
uses the “behavioral” model: “you need to change… go
on a diet, quit acting so weird, make yourself fit into our society.” ACT
believes that our society needs to accept all citizens as they are
and treat them with dignity.
By organizing within
the disability community, ACT helps form disability public policy – like
the passage of Minnesota Rule 40, prohibiting the use of aversive
and deprivation techniques in group homes and institutions. ACT
was also a key player in keeping awareness high of how the transit
strike impacted all communities that rely on buses for transportation,
but especially the disability community. When you have visible
public policy players like David Strom (Minnesota Taxpayers League)
questioning the need for buses at all, you need an organization
like ACT to tell the full story.
By organizing within
the disability community, ACT helps build awareness of disability
issues and history – like the Remembering With
Dignity project, one that increases awareness and preserves the history
of people who have lived and died in institutions. The Remembering
With Dignity project has restored four Minnesota state institution
cemeteries by replacing numbered markers with proper headstones.
By organizing within
the disability community, ACT helps build leaders. Like Gloria
Steinbring, who moved from Hibbing to Minneapolis to get more job
training and spent 11 years in a sheltered workshop doing assembly
work, instead of the work she really loved. Gloria used her personal
experience to find issues to organize around. “I
found out that I was not the only one being mistreated at work and
at home. A lot of other people were having the same problems as me,” says
Steinbring. “By working together to change things we have the
power to make the world a better place for everyone.”
Contact information: Advocating
Change Together - Mary Kay Kennedy, Co-Director; Rick Cardenas, Co-Director;1821
University Ave., Suite 306-S, St. Paul, MN 55104 Telephone: 651-641-0297 www.selfadvocacy.org
ACT has participated
in every Walk for Justice for the past nine years, and has raised
over $10,000 during that time.
