Faith Inclusion

by Bill Gaventa, PFTW Project Consultant, and Erik Carter, Vanderbilt Kennedy Center UCEDD

How do most of us get our jobs, at least somewhere along our work lives? It is often through personal relationships and networking that we find out about openings. Or, in other words, social capital is often the pathway to work.

Congregations are among the most numerous and natural support organizations in the United States. In fact, there are over 300,000 local faith communities across a diversity of traditions. Who attends these faith communities? Your immediate answer might be a collection of people who share a common set of beliefs and commitments and have chosen a particular congregation as their spiritual home. But there is another way to look at this membership. Faith communities are also filled with employers and employees from throughout the surrounding community. It is comprised of people who have deep knowledge of and personal relationships throughout the community. Moreover, faith communities represent the largest source of donors and volunteers in the country. [continue reading…]

If you had asked the Leah Ilana of 2020 where she would be career wise, she likely wouldn’t have guessed learning about grant writing for nonprofits in a hands-on environment. My educational background is in history and my undergraduate internships and employment experiences are in libraries, archives, and museums. After graduating with my bachelor’s, I found myself in a variety of roles from touring with a children’s dance competition to wearing many hats at a start-up focused on personal empowerment and consulting.

No matter how polished I may look on paper, I have always been plagued with a crippling sense of imposter syndrome. Constantly doubting myself, I felt directionless by the time my chronic illnesses worsened after a bout of COVID in March 2020. So, joining the cohort of apprentices through RespectAbility’s National Leadership Program as a Jewish Nonprofit Management Apprentice felt like a dream come true. A dream that I still felt unworthy of. Moving through the program, I learned how to apply my natural talent for writing and skills learned in my MFA and slowly gained confidence in preparation for my entry to the nonprofit world. [continue reading…]

Throughout my research of faith-based organizations that provide services for disability and mental health, a lot of organizations impressed me. I am going to focus on two in particular below.

The first organization that stood out to me was the Collaborative on Faith and Disability. Their homepage shares some fascinating statistics, including that 84% of people with disabilities say their faith is important to them, and that 45% of people with disabilities attend a place of worship at least monthly. [continue reading…]

“I’ve been working hard to integrate accessibility into St. Luke’s idea of what a Beloved Community looks like—what is a community, after all, without disabled people in its midst?”

Ten years ago this fall, on what my therapist at the time pointed out was also Yom Kippur, I stepped foot into St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Long Beach, California for the first time. It was my home from that moment on.

At the age of 21, I’d realized I no longer felt at home in the tradition in which I’d grown up. It no longer served me as I and my worldview changed.

Joining the Episcopal Church gave me room to be who I was. When I joined St. Luke’s, I identified as straight. Spending time amongst my Christian LGBTQIA+ elders allowed me the space to realize I myself was queer, and to come out to myself and those around me. In a church that welcomes and affirms LGBTQIA+ people with open arms, I was no longer the abomination I’d feared I was since teenagehood. Needless to say, growing up queer in the denomination of my youth wasn’t especially easy. [continue reading…]

Tzedek DC is an independent public interest center headquartered at the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law that helps people with problems stemming from debt.

Tzedek DC’s official mission is “to safeguard the legal rights and financial health of DC residents with low incomes dealing with the often-devastating consequences of abusive debt collection practices and other consumer related issues.” The nonprofit seeks to “carry out that mission with the goal of addressing racial gaps in wealth and equality.” [continue reading…]

Erika Abbott

What page are we on? How much longer does the service last? Just as my body signaled for urgent rest, the Shofar blasted. “Truah!”

Those first notes remind me that I want to be heard by my Jewish community. Not just as someone who’s disabled, but as a Holy Fool who has the knowledge you seek.

What better way to command attention than to play the Shofar? Thus, I decided to learn to play the ritual musical instrument and set out to play in Rosh Hashana services. I wanted to be the female version of Itzak Perlman. As I fell asleep that night, I could hear the T’kiah calling my name. [continue reading…]

1) Before you brainstorm solutions, STOP & ask a load of questions!

Remember, behavior is always communication. It is a way for kids, teens, and even adults to communicate an unmet need. For those with disabilities that impair their ability to communicate, this may be even more prevalent. Sometimes it’s unconscious and sometimes it’s conscious and a person with a disability can’t communicate it in a more effective way. A good example of this is a toddler meltdown, with our little ones who haven’t yet mastered their language skills. Older children and teens who have language deficits or who struggle labeling their emotions may also have frequent meltdowns. It’s important to reason that there is a WHY behind this behavior. [continue reading…]

There are people in our lives who radiate the warmth and vitality of the sun when we’re in their presence. They are curious about everyone they meet, and they thrive on spreading their wisdom for the good of the world. When you meet one of these treasures, you feel blessed. And when they become your friend, as they do, you accept this gift with gratitude.

Barbara Newman

Barbara Newman was someone in my life who was such a gift. We met in 2015 when Barb received the Henri Nouwen Award (renamed in 2021 as the Reimagining Spirituality Leadership Award) given by the Religion and Spirituality Network of the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. Barb was an icon in Christian inclusive education including curriculum design, individual support and universal design for worship and education. She was a pioneer at the Christian Learning Center, which changed its name to All Belong just a few years ago. Barb was in such demand as a keynote speaker, engaging her audiences within seconds. Barb was profound and passionate as she pursued her life’s calling so that all people with disabilities would feel a sense of belonging in faith community life-like anyone else.

Barb and I struck up an easy friendship and talked about our respective theologies and religious practices supported disability and mental health inclusion. When I wrote my book, “From Longing to Belonging: A Practical Guide to Including People with Disabilities and Mental Health Conditions in Your Faith Community,” I sought Barb’s guidance and wisdom. [continue reading…]

As we enter the end of summer (I know–it’s here!), those of us who work in education are turning our attention towards our classroom communities.

How do we create inclusive Jewish education communities? At Jewish Learning Venture, our Whole Community Inclusion initiative approaches inclusion holistically, engaging all stakeholders including the educators, the families, clergy and synagogue leaders and of course, the students themselves. We’ve implemented a number of successful programs to support inclusion, including: [continue reading…]