Advocacy is the foundation on which the independent living movement was built. Taking our inspiration from the Civil Rights Movement, we work to create positive change to legislation and policies, educate legislators, and organize and train the disability community to advocate for themselves. We work on local, statewide, and national issues impacting people with disabilities and older adults.
Examples of some of the issues we work on are:
- Access to affordable healthcare.
- Access to affordable and accessible housing.
- Access to accessible transportation.
- Accessible voting and Get Out The Vote (GOTV).
- Emergency preparedness.
- And much more!
If you are interested in joining our advocacy team, please contact us!
Each month here at FREED, we host a meeting of the BEAT (Building Equal Access Today) Group. BEAT Group members “promote advocacy by … collaborating with local, state, and federal representatives to inform and persuade accessibility issues, and to educate the community on different disability problems.” (BEAT Group Mission Statement) You can find out more about the BEAT Group here.
Also each month, our Executive Director, Ana Acton, hosts Disability Rap, a one-hour radio show on KVMR 89.5 FM Nevada City. You can listen to archived episodes of Disability Rap here.