Search: inclusive philanthropy

Watch videos, download transcripts, and read speaker biographies from our 2019 Capitol Hill Summit! [continue reading…]

Los Angeles, CA, May 7 – RespectAbility, a nonprofit organization fighting stigmas and advancing opportunities for people with disabilities, submitted the following public comments last week to the City of Los Angeles Workforce Development Board. The Board is in the process of finalizing their new Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) Year 20/2019-2020 Annual Plan. This plan will guide how the City of Los Angeles invests critical federal resources, builds new collaborations and works to empower people with barriers to employment in the year ahead.

RespectAbility’s public comments, which were jointly written by the organization’s D.C. and L.A. based staff, focused on several critical issues. First, the comments outline key data points about the size and scope of the disability community in Los Angeles. Second, the comments outlined in extensive detail about critical best practices and proven models of empowering job seekers with disabilities to successfully enter the workforce. Third, the comments cover a range of other issues including adopting disability best practices into existing programs to support the reentry population, expanding entrepreneurship opportunities, and supporting the local community through parent engagement as well as community resource fairs. Lastly, the public comments go into detail about how to leverage the incredible power of media and Hollywood to empower people with disabilities by fighting stigmas.

The working draft of the City of Los Angeles Workforce Development Board’s 2020 plan can be found on their website here. Read RespectAbility’s comments in full below. [continue reading…]

New York City, May 1 – Nearly 500,000 women and girls with disabilities live in New York City, with a stunning 44 percent of New York women with disabilities living below the poverty line. Furthermore, in the city itself, only 24 percent of Latina women with disabilities have jobs. Hence, ensuring the inclusion of diverse women with disabilities in civic engagement, nonprofits, foundations and government sectors is vital. After all, people who have struggled with challenges and know the solutions are best able to create progress.

Women with disabilities are underrepresented significantly when it comes to civic engagement in the nonprofit, foundation and government sectors. In the name of inclusion and equity, it is imperative that women – including women with disabilities – take a place and secure a space as active participants and leaders in these civic-centered sectors: as employees, volunteers and board members.

Carol Robles-Román

With this backdrop, Carol Robles-Román, Esq., Hunter College’s General Counsel and Dean of Faculty and former NYC Deputy Mayor, will address critical issues impacting Latina women with disabilities in New York City on May 18, 2019 in a first of its kind program, Empowerment Training for Latinas with Disabilities. The session is part of a monthly six-part series created by RespectAbility, a national disability advocacy organization. However, it is unprecedented in its unique focus on Latinas with disabilities. Robles-Román and additional Latina speakers will talk about disability disclosure, mental health advocacy, self-advocacy empowerment tools and opportunities for civic engagement. [continue reading…]

Report Released at the National Press Club, Available to view online at RespectAbility.org/Inclusive-Philanthropy

Washington, D.C., April 25 – Nonprofits and foundations are full of good work and good will. Nearly three-quarters (72%) of people who work in the social sector say their organizations have made a public commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and have policies that prohibit their groups from denying people with disabilities equal opportunity to participate in services and activities. Yet a new study out today shows that even among this very well-intentioned group, most foundations and nonprofits aren’t doing enough – if anything – to enable people with disabilities to have the access and accommodations they need to fully participate in the good these groups are doing. 

The study, “Disability in Philanthropy & Nonprofits: A Study on the Inclusion and Exclusion of the 1-in-5 People Who Live with a Disability and What You Can Do to Make Things Better” by RespectAbility, a nonpartisan group working on inclusion efforts for people with disabilities, surveyed 969 people who work at nonprofits and foundations, conducted five focus groups and spoke one-on-one with 14 executives at philanthropy-serving organizations. The study was released at an event this morning at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Anyone can read the study at www.RespectAbility.org/Inclusive-Philanthropy. [continue reading…]

In light of all of these findings, you are probably asking, “How do I make this better?” Others have asked that too and there are several peer organizations in the social sector making monumental strides to include people with disabilities. The Ford Foundation, Jewish Federation of Greater Washington, MacArthur Foundation and others have made great strides on journey to fully include people with disabilities. Each of these organizations is stronger and more successful in their work because of these efforts, and in working with them and others, RespectAbility has developed a proven roadmap. [continue reading…]

See all of the responses to our new study on Disability in Philanthropy & Nonprofits as well as responses from New York and California. [continue reading…]

In 2018, RespectAbility, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization dedicated to fighting stigmas and advancing opportunity for people with disabilities, fielded a national survey of people who work in the social sector. Using lists from the Chronicle of Philanthropy and the NonProfit Times, as well as our own extended network, we surveyed 969 respondents, primarily from nonprofits (76 percent) and foundations (18 percent), from 46 states, Washington, D.C., and other U.S. territories. We also spoke one-on-one to leaders in groups who advise and support philanthropy. Our goal was to begin a process of understanding and advancing how funders and nonprofits view and do or do not include people with disabilities. Here’s what we found: [continue reading…]

Despite the fact that one-in-five people in America has a disability and the Americans with Disabilities Act (prohibiting discrimination based on disability) has been law of the land for nearly 30 years, people with disabilities are not fully welcomed, respected, accepted or included in our work and communities. This is true even in the places where you think they would be – at foundations and nonprofits. [continue reading…]

So how do we improve? Our survey findings offer some insight and direction: [continue reading…]