#AdvocacyMatters: Turn The Page

December 22, 2023 / #AdvocacyMatters

As we prepare to flip our calendars to a new year, it’s important that we pause, reflect, and appreciate the advocacy that carried us through 2023. Our success isn’t measured only by transformational, monumental wins, but often by the smaller, incremental victories and stories we see and hear across Ohio each and every day.

Throughout the past year, we’ve helped organize, facilitate, and amplify opportunities for advocates to participate in civic engagement. From the “Dear Ohio Legislators” letter-writing events of our partners to educating advocates across Ohio about changes to state election laws, our team worked to bring the “nothing about us without us” mantra to life.

We compiled your direct care workforce crisis stories from our #EveryoneDeservesCare series into the innovative “Across Ohio: Direct Care Crisis” project. This interactive story map showed in a clear, simple way how the workforce crisis is impacting folks all across Ohio. New, strategic outputs like this help to increase understanding of the barriers still faced by disabled folks in our state.

We engaged with and learned from Ohioans with disabilities in all corners of the state through our annual survey process. Our 2023 survey was available in more languages and formats than ever before, delivering the clearest picture yet of the real life experiences of those we serve. Information from these surveys was used to update our organization’s Goals and Objectives for the new year, reshaping and refocusing the roadmap of our work.
Late this year we kicked off a new community engagement project, meant to build and strengthen relationships between our work and underserved communities all across Ohio. This project will see “listening sessions” – like the one recently held with Ukrainian refugees in Cleveland – with underserved communities to better understand their needs and how best to reach them.

We’re proud of all our team accomplished in 2023, and look forward all that lies ahead.

Wishing you and yours a safe and happy holiday.

#AdvocacyMatters