ACL awards HSRI the lead on The ACL Grassroots Project

>> CLICK HERE for slides from "Finding One's Advocacy Community: Stories and Insights from the Disability Community" (April 24, 2024, webinar)

The ACL Grassroots Project: Engage. Connect. Advocate.

The Administration on Community Living (ACL) awarded HSRI the lead on the ACL Grassroots Project which will use a multi-system (e.g., national, state, and local) approach to: 

• Develop structures, processes, and relationships necessary to build the next generation of cross-disability, cross-generational, and culturally diverse leaders within the advocacy movement.’ 
• Connect, grow, and strengthen networks of grassroots advocacy and action coalitions supporting each other and with the skills and knowledge to advocate for improvements in the quality of community-living supports.  

The project advances ACL’s efforts to support grassroots engagement in the implementation of the HCBS settings rule and ACL’s program priorities and focus areas, including:  

• Person-centered planning, consumer direction, and self-direction  
• Caregiver crisis 
• Health and safety in community living 
• HCBS settings rule 
• Civil Rights 
• Community integration 

HSRI will work with nine subcontractors to form the National Advocacy and Action Coalition:  

• National Association of Councils on Developmental Disabilities 
• National Disability Rights Network 
• Association of University Centers on Disabilities 
• Autistic Self-Advocacy Network 
• Self-Advocacy Resource and Technical Assistance Center  
• Association of Programs for Rural Independent Living 
• National Council on Independent Living 
• National Paralysis Resource Center 
• National Associations of State Head Injury Administrators

These groups, together with HSRI, will engage with state and local advocacy and action groups to support the growth of a robust grassroots disability advocacy network.  

“This is a tremendous opportunity from ACL to invest in the power of connecting disabled people to have a voice in and control over their lives through grassroots impact on systems of support. We are excited to build upon the engagement work we initiated with national partners through the National Center on Advancing Person-Centered Practices and Systems,” says Kate Brady, co-director of the Grassroots Project.  

“We are thrilled to continue HSRI’s long-standing relationship with ACL and partners to develop networks of people and co-create solutions that support meaningful improvements in community living," said Alixe Bonardi, co-director of the Grassroots Project and Vice President (IDD-AD) at HSRI. 

< Back