Disability Lead

1. Provide broad education on disability justice.

2. Fight ableism and racism through intersectional disability leadership.

3. Grow our Network and connect Members to key positions of influence. In 2023, DL will continue to grow the Members Network by adding approximately 40 new Members and Fellows and secure at least 60 new civic and professional advancements. Building on our accomplishments to date, DL must introduce new processes and tools to systematize the Connections we make for increased efficacy, efficiency, and equity. A Power-Mapping process launched in 2021 has enabled us to examine and map the region’s current power landscape; identify gaps in disability representation; set goals and devise strategies for filling gaps with talented leaders from our Network; and create the necessary infrastructure to sustain the Power-Mapping process and track results over time.

4. Strengthen and expand the Network to increase leadership opportunities for Members and reflect the diversity of Chicago. Each year, DL adds 30-40 new Fellows and Members to its Network, yet expansion must be accelerated if we want to achieve desired scale. Funding will enable DL to hire a consultant to study the potential for national expansion; test new recruitment strategies and program offerings; and add to current staff capacity including fulltime community manager and communications positions to manage and grow the Network. Since 2017, DL has made important strides toward increasing the racial and ethnic diversity of its programs. DL will continue its relationship-based outreach strategies with the objective of increasing the diversity of the Network from 40% BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) in 2020 to 50% by end of 2026.

5. Expand our model beyond the Chicago region. Disability Leadership in civic and professional spaces is needed beyond the Chicago region, and we believe DL’s unique model is one that can be adapted in communities across the nation. As part of our strategic planning effort, we identified that expansion is both a goal and ongoing area of focus because cities across the nation are in need of intersectional disability leadership and leaders who can bring perspectives that span the rich diversity of lived experiences. In the next 2-5 years we will be exploring models of expansion and replication, identifying one that is the best and most sustainable fit, and securing funding to launch a pilot. In years 5-7, our goal is to transition from a pilot phase to an operational model.

6. Support equitable policies that fulfill the promise of the ADA.

1. We are infusing Disability Lead’s programs this year with a focus on the intersection of disability justice and racial equity.

2. We are partnering with local racial justice practitioners Enrich Chicago and Chicago Regional Organizing for Anti-Racism (CROAR) to infuse racial equity into our core work, policies, and practices. CROAR’s co-director, was a 2020 Fellow and Network Member.

3. Objective A: We will continue to increase the number of advancements made by our Members. We also plan to develop a new concept: “Connections Ambassadors”—a group of deeply connected individuals who will use their networks and knowledge to identify service opportunities for our Members and facilitate connections as appropriate. The Ambassadors program has the potential to help systematize our civic connections work for greater scale and efficiency.

Objective B:
- Each year, Disability Lead adds 16-20 new Fellows to its Network, yet expansion must be accelerated if we want to achieve desired scale. This will require revamping our recruitment efforts and refining and re-packaging the program elements (e.g., membership criteria, benefits, specific program offerings, etc.). Funding will enable Disability Lead to conduct research, hold focus groups with current Members to brainstorm ideas for attracting and retaining Members, and test new recruitment strategies and program offerings.
- Our strategy for this work centers on cultivating meaningful partnerships with highly engaged and deeply connected grassroots groups such as the Marshall Square Resource Network. We have added over 25 new partners through this strategy, and the ultimate result has been a significant increase in the diversity of our Fellowship application pool: between 2018 and 2019, the number of BIPOC applicants rose by 140%.

Objective C:
- Now that Disability Lead is an independent nonprofit, the next step is to identify a fundraising model for long-term growth and sustainability. Our plans include 1) laying out a strategy for increasing support from individual and corporate funders and 2) continuing to build the necessary infrastructure to support it. Possible tactics include getting Disability Lead registered with corporate supporters’ employer matching programs; encouraging increased Member giving; fully leveraging the capabilities of our new relationship management system, Neon; and implementing the new Give/Get minimum that our board will vote on, and launching a major donor strategy.
- To ensure long-term sustainability, we will significantly increase our institutional partnerships.

4. We cultivated relationships with key policymakers and are continuing to advocate for this critical change.

Structurally, Disability Lead is led by a 5-member staff team that works with the membership to brainstorm, design, and execute all programs. A 13-member board of directors is responsible for providing fiduciary oversight and ensuring the long-term sustainability of the organization. Leadership and a majority of staff members of Disability Lead identify as having a disability as does the Board of Directors. 11 board and staff members are Members. The Network is always looked to as a source of new talent for Disability Lead’s staff and board. Members are notified and invited to apply when an AL staff position becomes available. In the most recent staffing search for Disability Lead’s Executive Director in 2019, the chosen individual came from within the Network.

In fall 2019, Emily Blum was hired as Disability Lead’s first full-time Executive Director. For Emily, a Member and 2018 Fellow, this role is both personal and professional. A seasoned nonprofit leader, she has more than 20 years’ experience bringing stakeholders together to create and implement effective communications strategies around complex social and political issues. Emily previously held senior positions at some of Chicago’s leading nonprofits, including Metropolitan Planning Council (MPC), Chicago Humanities Festival (CHF) and Heartland Alliance.

Other core Disability Lead team members—Robin Burnett, Director of Education and Operations and Risa Rifkind, Director of Civic Engagement and Marketing—have been with the organization since Disability Lead's inception. All three staff leaders identify as individuals with disabilities and one of the three is a woman of color. Risa is a graduate of the Institute. Disability Lead’s commitment to maintaining a diverse staff and board that are well-versed in disability knowledge and experience is consistent with the resounding motto of the disability rights movement, “Nothing about us without us.”

In addition to board and staff leadership, Members are invited to serve on Disability Lead’s Program Committee, which focuses on interviewing and selecting the next Institute Fellows class. Members have also been invited to serve on various ad-hoc committees that advance Disability Lead’s internal work. Members actively help recruit new Members and Fellows—often through speaking engagements and sharing their stories on Disability Lead’s communications channels—and they also design and lead sessions at our events. As presentations and conversations are led more and more by our Members, the organization demonstrates progress made toward our goal of building a strong disability leadership pipeline, as well as our principle of inclusion and representation on both sides of the session. Examples of past Member-led sessions include: Disability Rights History, Personal Storytelling, and Intersectionality and Disability.

Increasing civic engagement in the age of COVID-19 for Disability Lead required our organization to remain nimble and responsive to the needs of our membership. With changes to workflows and processes, and moving Institute programming and connections work online, Disability Lead has been successful in increasing civic connections and expanding the Network while building a sustainable organization. We are proud to report that in 2022 we made progress towards both our short-term and long-term goals.

Disability Lead focused on three key, long-term organizational areas of growth in 2022:

1. Provide broad education on disability justice to Disability Lead Members and beyond.

We continued our Disability Power Series and intentionally engaged nontraditional partners so leaders across sectors and identities could engage with and ultimately champion disability issues, stories, and policy priorities. We also have begun work on a corporate symposium in 2023 that will continue this conversation in a broader space.

2. Fight ableism and racism through intersectional disability leadership. We recruited racially and ethnically diverse individuals to join our organization and provided Member-led, in-depth programming to explore intersectional identities.

3. Develop a long-term strategy for the growth and expansion of Disability Lead. We are proud to announce the launch of our first pilot expansion into a new catchment area, and the launch of new program offerings in our existing Chicagoland programs.