Paul K. Longmore Institute on Disability - disability cultural center

Make A Wish with the Longmore Institute

Emily Beitiks — Tue, 18 Sep 2018 22:46:25 +0000

We have exciting news!

We have received a contract from the city of San Francisco’s Department of Aging and Adult Services (DAAS) to plan for a disability cultural center. To our knowledge, it’s going to be the first of its kind: city-run, community-based, and made by and for people with disabilities.

This is super important for San Francisco’s many disabled people. The planning process offers a great opportunity for all of us to take stock of what we have, what we need, and what we want. What kind of physical space will make it possible for us to gather for cutting-edge cultural programs, key community services, possibilities to converse, debate, reclaim, reinvent?

TAKE THE SURVEY NOW

Here are seven things you need to know:

Thanks to the creation of the Dignity Fund passed by San Francisco voters in November 2016, San Francisco has an established baseline fund of $38 million required to grow over the next decade by $33 million “to address currently unmet and emerging needs of San Francisco’s older adults and adults with disabilities.” Fortunately, the Department of Aging and Adult Services believes that this cultural center is a pressing need and wants to prioritize using Dignity Funds to get it up and running.
Every aspect of the Center will be of, by, and for San Francisco’s people with disabilities. This means early and ongoing community participation will be critical. Over the next few months, we’ll be reaching out to ask that rarest of questions for people with disabilities: what do you want? What matters to you? And how do you think you’d benefit from such a place? Take the survey to tell us what you think now.
We will be seeking community input from San Francisco residents through a survey and series of focus group conversations. We’re working hard to reach people who seldom have a voice, people who may not even imagine they need such a place but then will be excited to learn that it exists.
We approach this as adding another jewel in the crown of the city’s many exciting and diverse cultural centers. We’ve been visiting them to learn about what it takes to establish and run a center in a vibrant, diverse place like San Francisco. Our goal is to build on what they’ve created to have a welcoming space for people of all ages, families, and body types where accessibility is baked in.
Our leadership team, 100% people with disabilities, reflects a wide range of groups and organizations within San Francisco. We’re so excited about our people that we have a whole blog post about them!
This will be a collaborative process. While the Longmore Institute is leading the research, guiding principles and priorities will be determined by the group. Christine Poremski Rodrigues of R&P Associates, who oversaw Longmore Institute’s own recent strategic planning, will keep us all on track.
We intend to complete this planning process in the early spring and will submit our report to the city by the end of April. The planning phase is critical in order to define what the community wants and how we get there. Stay tuned in the coming weeks for news from Longmore Institute about the survey, focus groups, and other opportunities for getting involved. Let us know if you want to be included by completing this online form.

Just as with real life, dreams are dreams, which means we can’t make any guarantees about what ultimately comes to pass. But we can promise occasions for conversation, for exploring what people with disabilities from various communities and perspectives want, along with many opportunities to work toward this goal.

We like to think of this as a continuation of what the occupiers inside San Francisco’s federal building in 1977 enjoyed: an occasion to have multiple conversations that result in a collective dream for improving the lives of disabled people.

At a time when so much is being dismantled and under threat, it’s great to be able to share dreams and gather strength. With the doors of a disability cultural center open, we’ll have a place to recharge and charge forward.

If you’re a San Francisco resident who wants to make a wish with the Longmore Institute, be sure to fill out this form: https://goo.gl/forms/NuzPIkpGLQG5tyKr1. And watch this blog for ongoing updates!

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disability cultural center

Department of Aging and Adult Services

Meet the Disability Cultural Center Leadership Committee!

Anna Goose — Tue, 18 Sep 2018 22:20:10 +0000

San Francisco's Department of Aging and Adult Services has hired the Longmore Institute to create a new disability cultural center that will provide San Franciscans with an accessible space to socialize, build community, educate, and express and foster disability culture. Meet the team of experts who will guide this project!:

Alice Wong

Founder/ Director - Disability Visibility Project

Alice is a media maker, research consultant, and disability activist based in San Francisco, CA. She is the Founder of the Disability Visibility Project™ (DVP), a community partnership with StoryCorps and an online community dedicated to creating, amplifying, and sharing disability media and culture.

Bruce Wolfe

Chief Information Officer - Alcohol Justice / SF Community Hand Trust / Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council

Bruce is a professional audio engineer, stage manager and T'ai Chi instructor. Bruce holds a Master’s Degree in Social Work with a concentration in Social Development from San Francisco State University and is a Life Coach.

Elizabeth Grigsby

Community Advocate - Golden Gate Regional Center

Elizabeth works for Golden Gate Regional Center since 1995 as the Consumer Rights Advocate. Her philosophy towards self-advocacy is to help individuals with disabilities thrive and get the best services possible that they deserve.

Fiona Hinze

Systems Change Coordinator/Community Organizer - ILRC-SF

Fiona works to ensure consumers are aware of advocacy opportunities in the community, such as calls to action on various issues. She serves on the State Independent Living Council and is a member of the Disability Organizing Network.

Jessica Lehman

Executive Director - Senior & Disability Action

Jessica supports domestic worker rights as a founding member and leader of Hand in Hand: the Domestic Employers Association. She leads monthly Organizer’s Forum calls, as part of the National Disability Leadership Alliance, to share ideas and experiences related to organizing the disability community.

Lisamaria Martinez

Director of Community Services - LightHouse for the Blind

Lisamaria has always been an advocate for the blind, she studied social welfare at U.C. Berkeley, and began volunteering at the LightHouse. She worked at the Hatlen Center for the Blind as a living skills and braille instructor. She has Masters from Louisiana Tech in Psychology program with an emphasis in Orientation & Mobility. Lisamaria is now Director of Community Services at LightHouse.

Marti Goddard

Director of Access Services - San Francisco Public Library

Marti has focused much of her work toward ensuring universal access for library users with disabilities to all of the Library's collections and programs of service. She is most active in ASCLA, the Association of Specialized and Cooperative Library Agencies, where she currently is chair of the Universal Access Interest Group and the ALA Diversity Council. Marti served as editor of "Guidelines for Library and Information Services for the American Deaf Community" and is coordinating efforts for a revised edition of those guidelines.

Nicole Bohn

Director - SF Mayor's Office on Disability

Nicole began her professional career in 1997 providing crisis intervention and reasonable accommodation counseling services for individuals with disabilities. She worked at the University of San Francisco from 1997 to 2008, during which time she was progressively responsible for managing and overseeing the University’s reasonable accommodation program and policies. Most recently, Nicole served as the Director of the Disability Programs and Resource Center at San Francisco State University, leading and coordinating centralized compliance efforts for a campus with more than 30,000 students and 3,800 employees during the last eight years.

Orkid Sassouni

Employee at SFPL - Deaf Services

Orkid received her B.A degree in Art History and Museum Studies from Gallaudet University. Orkid attended Parsons School of Design in New York City from which she received a B.F.A degree. She attended San Francisco State University to study Inter Art Center. She received her M.A degree in Interdisciplinary Arts: Concentration in Education in 2002, a rare major that allowed Orkid to study multi-disciplines in theory, education, research, and discussion. She currently works at the San Francisco Public Library’s Deaf Services Center. She is also a past President and Coordinator for Deaf Visual and Performing Artists, known as DVPA. But Orkid has never abandoned her love of photography. Her photographs and mixed media artworks have been shown in galleries across the United States.

Tiffany Yu

CEO/Founder - DiversAbility

Tiffany graduated with honors from Georgetown University and currently live in San Francisco. She is a speaker, social impact entrepreneur, diversity & inclusion community builder, and inclusion and empowerment advocate. She is the CEO & Founder of Diversability (rebranding disability through community) and the Founder of the Awesome Foundation Disability Chapter. She has been named one of the "100 most influential Asian Americans of 2017," one of "100 visionary leaders," and a "women of influence" honoree.