Access Living

Established in 1980, Access Living is committed to fostering an inclusive society with programming that helps Chicagoans with disabilities live fully engaged and self-directed lives. The organization is a nationally recognized leader in the disability advocacy community, and it focuses on challenging stereotypes, protecting civil rights, and championing social reform. Access Living uses a cross-disability approach that recognizes the intersectionality of all major disability types. Under this framework, the organization advocates for better accommodations, policies, and procedures for the disability population in Illinois. This award enables Access Living to continue to raise awareness of the overincarceration of people with disabilities. The project focuses on convening criminal justice stakeholders and practitioners with a specific focus in Illinois to improve local jail diversion and reentry efforts. It also includes the creation of an advisory committee consisting of people with disabilities who are justice involved to provide strategic advice and guidance on its diversion, reentry, and public education work.

Established in 1980, Access Living is committed to fostering an inclusive society that enables Chicagoans with disabilities to live fully engaged and self-directed lives. It is a nationally recognized leader in the disability advocacy community that challenges stereotypes, protects civil rights, and champions social reform. By using a cross-disability approach that recognizes the intersectionality of all major disability types, Access Living’s goal is to reframe how disability is defined in the justice system and for system stakeholders to apply this framework to provide better accommodations, policies, and procedures for this population instead of incarceration. This award enables Access Living to contribute its knowledge and expertise to advancing systems reform in the Safety and Justice Challenge by raising awareness of how jails interact with people with disabilities and create a forum to engage a cross-section of disability and system stakeholders to ensure appropriate treatment of this population throughout the justice system.

Established in 1980, Access Living is committed to fostering an inclusive society that enables Chicagoans with disabilities to live fully engaged and self-directed lives. It is a nationally recognized leader in the disability advocacy community that challenges stereotypes, protects civil rights, and champions social reform. This award enables Access Living to explore opportunities to: (1) contribute its knowledge and expertise to advancing systems reform in the Safety and Justice Challenge Network through a focus on people with disabilities involved in the justice system; and (2) raise awareness of the specific problems in how the Cook County Jail interacts with people with disabilities and identify potential solutions. In addition to producing a report on its findings and recommendations for improving the criminal justice system response, the outcomes include a proposal for additional support for a related public education and policy advocacy campaign.

In support of the arts and cultural components of the Living the Vision campaign to build a permanent home for the organization.

Technical assistance to Chicago-area community-based organizations.