Building a Community of Dignity and Respect at CU Able

At CU Able, we believe every person deserves to live with dignity and respect. For folks with disabilities in Central Illinois, this means more than just access to services. It means building a community where everyone feels valued, included, and supported. Our nonprofit was founded on these principles, and today we are excited to launch this blog as a space to share our journey, insights, and stories that reflect our core values.

Our Value of Dignity & Respect

Dignity and respect are the foundation of how CU Able serves our disabled neighbors. We recognize that every individual has unique strengths and challenges, honoring cultural identities and how they influence lived experiences. Our approach focuses on listening carefully and responding with empathy. In practice, this means:

• Honoring privacy and personal boundaries; we allow anonymous questions in our private Facebook group to create a safe environment for sensitive inquiries.

• Offering help without assuming; we follow the individual's lead and use disability-affirming language.

• Creating safe spaces online and at our events where everyone feels seen, listened to, and cared for. We have a zero-tolerance policy for racism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, and intolerance of any sort.

  
  

By centering dignity and respect, we help build confidence and independence for those we serve while honoring their personhood. As a board made up of parents of disabled children, disabled adults, and some neurodivergent individuals, we understand that ableism surrounds us. We want to do our best to change that.

Our Value of Accessibility in Practice

Accessibility is more than a legal requirement; it is a practical necessity that shapes how people experience the world. CU Able works to remove barriers that limit participation in daily life and our programs. While this is an ongoing lifelong learning process, our efforts include:

• Ensuring physical spaces are wheelchair accessible with wide doorways and aisles designed with accessibility in mind.

• Sharing information in accessible formats (plain language, digital options), including our newly updated website designed to increase accessibility.

• Hosting welcoming social events where individuals and families can gather in person and build community. Simultaneously, we host a private Facebook group where those who are homebound can access the community.

  
  

Most, if not all, disabled people have experienced ableism in their lives. Whether it's a lack of wheelchair access, a poorly supported IEP (Individual Education Plan), or open discrimination, ableism hurts us all. We strive as an organization to support disabled families and create accessible communities.

Our Value of Community-Led Initiatives

We believe the best solutions come from within the community itself. CU Able supports initiatives led by people with disabilities, empowering them to shape our programs and policies. Some of our community-led projects include:

• Creating a Menstrual Equity Drive to offer period products free to our community members during our giveaway events after requests.

• Regularly asking for community feedback and following up with visible improvements, such as adding additional shelving and shopping carts for our giveaway events.

• Partnering with fellow disability-led organizations, honoring those already doing the work in the community and avoiding reinventing the wheel.

• Understanding that we are not perfect, nor do we know everything; as a board, we strive to work through our implicit biases and understand how intersectional (multicultural) identities affect our community members.

  
  

These initiatives, led by disabled individuals and caregivers in our community, help guide our work as a nonprofit. Through these efforts, we develop our programs and services. They also ensure our nonprofit stays connected to the real needs and hopes of the people we serve, as we understand that disability affects everyone individually. We are building a safe, affirming environment, and without our community, what are we even doing here?

Our Value of Equity and Fairness in Every Action

Equity means recognizing that different people with multicultural identities need different kinds of support to achieve fairness. CU Able works to identify and address disparities that affect disabled adults in Central Illinois. This includes:

• Using clear, consistent guidelines for our events and giveaways.

• Reducing barriers for those with mobility, communication, or sensory needs by offering additional assistance for our giveaways, such as loading the car, lifting, and helping with shopping.

• Monitoring outcomes to ensure programs benefit all groups equally, striving to understand and learn how to improve our operations for an equitable experience.

  
  

For instance, we know there are homebound disabled families who would greatly benefit from our community giveaway events. However, we haven't been able to expand our services to include delivery. So what's the solution? We allow families to send a proxy for them, ensuring they're benefiting from the program while also honoring the limits of our capacity. This is an ongoing project, so we welcome any feedback! (info@cuable.org)

Our Value of Responsible Stewardship of Resources

As a nonprofit, CU Able takes seriously the responsibility to use our donated resources wisely and transparently. We strive to maximize impact by:

• Prioritizing programs that directly improve the quality of life for our communities, from social gatherings to our giveaways to advice from our private Facebook group.

• Communicating what we offer, how to access it, and any limits we have as an organization. We strive for clear, concise language for clarity in our posts on Facebook, our internal documentation, and our website.

• Reporting openly on how funds are spent and what results are achieved, such as our recent upgrades to our giveaway process, including adding shelves and shopping carts.

  
  

This stewardship builds trust with the community and ensures sustainability for the future. We have the greatest honor of serving our fellow neighbors, and we wouldn't have it any other way. There is so much passion behind this project, and we understand our responsibility to our communities.

What You Can Expect from This Blog

This blog will be a place to explore topics that matter to the disability community and those who support us. We will share:

• Stories from individuals and families about their experiences navigating various disability-related topics, ranging from moments of disabled joy to more sensitive topics that affect us due to ableism and discrimination.

• Practical tips on accessibility and inclusion, from how to make your events more accessible to sharing resources for procuring durable medical equipment.

• Updates on CU Able's programs and events, where we are and what we're doing.

• Insights on federal and state policy changes and advocacy efforts we are involved with to help break down barriers related to Medicaid, Medicare, Special Education, and more.

• Book recommendations because I'm a book nerd, and there is a plethora of fantastic works on disability, disability justice, crip culture, neurodivergence, and so much more.

  
  

Our goal is to create a welcoming space where readers feel informed, inspired, and connected. We appreciate you being here with us, and we are so grateful for the opportunity to serve our communities.

Join Us in Building a More Inclusive Central Illinois

CU Able’s values guide everything we do. By focusing on dignity, respect, accessibility, community leadership, equity, and responsible stewardship, we aim to create lasting change within our communities. We invite you to follow this blog, share your thoughts, and get involved. Together, we can build a community where all children and adults with disabilities have the opportunity to thrive. It's up to us to honor where we come from and strive to build an accessible future.

We greatly appreciate you being a part of our community.