CU Able: Our Values in Action
- ryleeb5
- 2 days ago
- 5 min read
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; allow anonymous questions in our private Facebook group to create a safe environment for sensitive questions.
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/cared for; we have a zero tolerance policy for racism/homophobia/transphobia/xenophobia/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 neurodivergence thrown in there - we understand that ableism surrounds us and 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 spaced 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. In the same breath, hosting a private Facebook group where folks who are homebound can access the community.
Most, if not all, disabled people have experienced ableism in their lives. Whether it's no 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, so we may offer period products free to our community members during our giveaway events after requests.
Asking for community feedback regularly 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 the folks doing the work already in the community and not reinventing the wheel.
Understanding that we are not perfect, nor do we know everything; we as a board 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; it's through these that 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 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 idendities 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, 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 quality of life of 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 of 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/discrimination.
Practical tips on accessibility and inclusion, from how to make your events more accessible to sharing resources of any outside programming that could assist with 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 changes to Medicaid/Medicare/Special Education/etc.
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.