I/DD stands for “Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.”
I/DD folks are often marginalized and excluded.
The more fully we understand the lived experience of I/DD individuals and their families, the greater our capacity to create the welcoming and inclusive community we’re meant to be. We’ll be exploring activities to share with I/DD community members expressing an interest in our Sunday services, various Connect Up activities, among other options. Contact Elona, elonameyer@icloud.com, if you would like to be included in planning or providing shared activities—or would simply like to learn more about living and thriving with I/DD.
I/DD individuals tend to be vastly over-represented within the homeless and incarcerated populations.
To prevent this unjust, cruel state of affairs, advocacy is needed, particularly within the criminal justice system.
Trained and certified advocates can help I/DD victims, suspects, and witnesses navigate the justice system for more equitable outcomes.
Recently awarded UUFC Justice Outreach funds will be used to help design an I/DD advocacy training and certification program, for potential use both locally and nationally. We are fortunate to have the necessary expertise and experience on our design team! Want more information on the development of the I/DD advocacy program? Contact elonameyer@icloud.com.
Your Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Team (EDI), in collaboration with Misha Marie (from the Arc of Benton County), with support from the Climate Action and Secure Food and Housing teams, requested the use of UUFC Outreach Funds for designing the training and certification program. We are thrilled to see our vision for I/DD advocacy training begin to materialize!
We’ll keep you posted on our progress through the Justice Council publications. A big thanks goes to all our collaborators and to the Justice Outreach team for their careful consideration of our request.