Activating Change

Activating Change centers people with disabilities and Deaf people in safety and justice movements. Their mission is to eliminate the  victimization, criminalization, incarceration, and institutionalization of people with disabilities and Deaf people by bringing together organizations across the country working in fragmented movements of disability, survivor advocacy, and criminal justice reform. This award enables Activating Change to build the capacity of people and organizations within the Safety and Justice Challenge and center the lived experiences of people with disabilities and Deaf people most impacted by over-policing, criminalization, and mass incarceration. It also focuses on developing strategies to eliminate disability disparities in the criminal justice system to advance more just and equitable criminal justice systems.

Activating Change (AC) is a new organization working to end victimization, criminalization, incarceration, and institutionalization of people with disabilities and Deaf people. AC seeks to eliminate violence and disparities in the lives of people with disabilities. It focuses on the most acute and overlooked harms, ranging from domestic and sexual violence to police-involved shootings to detention. AC engages, mobilizes, and aligns people and organizations working in disability, criminal justice reform, and anti-violence movements, as well as government and private philanthropy. This award enables AC to build the capacity of people and organizations within the Safety and Justice Challenge to center the lived experiences of people with disabilities and Deaf people most impacted by over-policing, criminalization, and mass incarceration; to develop strategies to eliminate disability disparities in the criminal justice system; and to advance more just and equitable criminal justice systems.