Self-Advocate

Providing Accessible and Effective Services to Survivors of Sexual Assault with Disabilities

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month and in support of survivors everywhere, we dedicated this month’s End Abuse of People with Disabilities webinar to lifting up promising practices for serving survivors …
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Providing Accessible and Effective Services to Survivors of Sexual Assault with Disabilities

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month and in support of survivors everywhere, we dedicated this month’s End Abuse of People with Disabilities webinar to lifting up promising practices for serving survivors with disabilities. The webinar featured a panel comprised of a survivor with a disability, a national expert, and a local advocate, this webinar explored the unique barriers that people with disabilities have to navigate when seeking healing and the strategies that advocates can employ to proactively remove those barriers. The panelists provided practical guidance from their own experience to help you ensure that survivors with disabilities feel respected and supported within your programs

Panelists, Cathy Saunders, Self-Advocate with Illinois Imagines, Cierra Olivia Thomas-Williams, Prevention Specialist at Indiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Heidi Sue LeBoeuf, Counseling Director at Pathways For Change and facilitator Sandra Harrell, Associate Director, Center on Victimization and Safety led this discussion.
Words Matter: Exploring Identity and Language for Survivors with Disabilities

In the disability community, where there is a history of erasure, exploitation, and misunderstanding, language choices we make when talking about people with disabilities (also referred to as disabled people) …
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Words Matter: Exploring Identity and Language for Survivors with Disabilities

In the disability community, where there is a history of erasure, exploitation, and misunderstanding, language choices we make when talking about people with disabilities (also referred to as disabled people) are ever-changing and important. How people understand themselves adapts and shifts as our communities, movements, and cultures change, as does our language about identity.

Recognizing and honoring people’s choices about their identity is critical to supporting survivors with disabilities. Service providers need to understand, respect, and uplift community members’ decisions about their identity, including the language that they use.

Join us for a dynamic discussion with Max Barrows and Cierra Olivia Thomas-Williams, moderated by Olga Trujillo, as we delve into their perspectives on identity and language, the various perspectives of disability communities, and the importance of empowering those most impacted to make decisions about their own identities and the language we use.
Ableism and Violence: A Plain Language Guide

This resource was created to be a plain language guide to ableism and the ways that ableism contributes to violence against people with disabilities. It is designed to help self-advocates …
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Ableism and Violence: A Plain Language Guide

This resource was created to be a plain language guide to ableism and the ways that ableism contributes to violence against people with disabilities. It is designed to help self-advocates understand ableism and its connection to violence against people with disabilities.
Peer to Peer: Bridging the Gap Through Self-Advocacy Curriculum

People with developmental and intellectual disabilities are at an increased risk of experiencing abuse. They may turn to a variety of support systems in the aftermath of victimization, but barriers …
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Peer to Peer: Bridging the Gap Through Self-Advocacy Curriculum

People with developmental and intellectual disabilities are at an increased risk of experiencing abuse. They may turn to a variety of support systems in the aftermath of victimization, but barriers that exist within these support systems often create obstacles to healing. Other people with disabilities can make ideal supports for people with disabilities who have experienced domestic and sexual violence because they can provide support on an equal level with the person who has been hurt.

The Peer to Peer: Bridging the Gap through Self-Advocacy curriculum was designed to provide self-advocates with the information and tools needed to support survivors and to act as a bridge between the survivor and the programs in the community designed to serve them. Through four interactive courses, self-advocates will learn peer support skills and information about domestic violence, sexual assault, and the justice system.
Innovations at the Intersection: Supporting Survivors of Sexual Assault with a Survivor Support Packet

In our first Innovations at the Intersection webinar, we will highlight the Survivor Support Packet, a support guide for survivors of sexual assault with disabilities. If you are looking for …
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Innovations at the Intersection: Supporting Survivors of Sexual Assault with a Survivor Support Packet

In our first Innovations at the Intersection webinar, we will highlight the Survivor Support Packet, a support guide for survivors of sexual assault with disabilities. If you are looking for a tool to help you serve survivors with disabilities, the Survivor Support Packet, developed by and for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities in collaboration with the rest of the Mass Rights for Change team, may be what you are looking for! The Survivor Support Packet includes a list of a survivor’s rights following sexual assault, a community resource list, scripts to help survivors reach out for help, self-care exercises, and tips for people supporting survivors with disabilities.

In this interactive discussion, we will talk about the need that led to the Survivor Support Packet, how it could be valuable in your community, and how you can create a similar, customized resource by partnering with self-advocates. You will also learn some of the strategies used in the Survivor Support Packet that could be helpful in working with survivors with disabilities you serve.
How Safe are Americans with Disabilities?

While people with disabilities make up nearly one-fifth of the U.S. population, they remain largely invisible to society at large, and victim response systems in particular. And despite growing public …
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How Safe are Americans with Disabilities?

While people with disabilities make up nearly one-fifth of the U.S. population, they remain largely invisible to society at large, and victim response systems in particular. And despite growing public awareness of violent victimization, it excludes the victimization of people with disabilities, who are at particular risk of serious violent crime, including rape, sexual assault, robbery, and aggravated assault. As victims, people with disabilities face formidable barriers to getting related support.

This brief provides basic information on disability in the United States. It explores what is known about violent victimization of people with disabilities and the factors that contribute to their higher risk of experiencing violent crime. It also explains the obstacles people with disabilities encounter when seeking access to the services and supports they need to heal. Finally, it stresses the limits of existing victim-service, human-service, and criminal justice systems, policies, and practices in responding to violence against people with disabilities.

Vera Institute of Justice
Nothing About Us Without Us: Centering the Movement Around Self-Advocates

This webinar provides an overview of how to facilitate the effective participation of self-advocates at the intersection of violence and disability as well as some of the benefits of ensuring …
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Nothing About Us Without Us: Centering the Movement Around Self-Advocates

This webinar provides an overview of how to facilitate the effective participation of self-advocates at the intersection of violence and disability as well as some of the benefits of ensuring that the movement is centered around their lived experiences

Vera Institute of Justice
Compensation Considerations for Self-Advocates Receiving Government Benefits

Vera’s Center on Victimization and Safety believes that people with disabilities and Deaf people are experts in their own experiences. One way to ensure that the perspectives of people with …
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Compensation Considerations for Self-Advocates Receiving Government Benefits

Vera’s Center on Victimization and Safety believes that people with disabilities and Deaf people are experts in their own experiences. One way to ensure that the perspectives of people with disabilities and Deaf people are incorporated into the movement to end violence against people with disabilities is to make sure that they are meaningfully involved in the work and valued for their expertise. However, there are specific considerations organizations should think about when compensating self-advocates. Vera developed this tip sheet to provide basic information on some government means-tested benefit programs for people with disabilities, and to explain the potential effects that receiving compensation may have on these benefits. The tip sheet also guides readers to additional resources for people with disabilities and their advocates.

Vera Institute of Justice
Sexual Victimization of Men with Disabilities and Deaf Men: A National Snapshot

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) defines disability as any “physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities.”1 Major life activities include seeing, hearing, reading, …
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Sexual Victimization of Men with Disabilities and Deaf Men: A National Snapshot

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) defines disability as any “physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities.”1 Major life activities include seeing, hearing, reading, walking, and eating. Based on this definition, approximately 20 percent of Americans have a disability.2 Unfortunately, research suggests that having a disability may increase a person’s risk for experiencing victimization. Based on the most recent national estimates, the rate of violent victimization against people with disabilities was more than twice the rate for those without disabilities.3 The rate of serious violent victimization (including sexual assault, robbery, and aggravated assault) was more than three times higher than the rate for people without disabilities. Studies also show that people with disabilities have a higher probability of repeat victimization, and by multiple perpetrators.4

Since 2005, the Vera Institute of Justice (Vera) has been working within communities to address victimization of people with disabilities. In those communities, we have heard a common refrain: At the intersection of violence and disability, men with disabilities experience domestic and sexual violence at rates higher than their counterparts without disabilities. Because so much of the narrative surrounding domestic and sexual violence has assumed that the primary victims are female, Vera sought to better understand the victimization experiences of male survivors with disabilities and those who are Deaf and delineate the challenges they face when accessing victim services. In partnership with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women (OVW), Vera’s Center on Victimization and Safety launched a project to explore these issues in depth. The goal was to raise awareness of these underserved survivors, build consensus about the barriers to services, and begin identifying potential solutions.

Vera Institute of Justice
The ADA@25: Impact and Implications for People with Disabilities Involved in the Justice System

In conjuncture with the 25th anniversary of the signing of the American’s with Disabilities Act, the Center on Victimization released this factsheet that reflects on the impact this legislation had …
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The ADA@25: Impact and Implications for People with Disabilities Involved in the Justice System

In conjuncture with the 25th anniversary of the signing of the American’s with Disabilities Act, the Center on Victimization released this factsheet that reflects on the impact this legislation had on justice involved people with disabilities and Deaf people.

Vera Institute of Justice