Each June, as school ends, the temperature starts to climb, and roadside farm stands pop up, I’m always reminded of my childhood. During the summer, I spent hours and hours on my grandparents’ farm, plucking sweet corn from fields, making homemade strawberry jam with my grandmother, and listening to crop price updates from the local radio station. My summers on the farm not only helped mold me into the person I am today but also fostered a strong love and appreciation for rural communities. When AWS Foundation developed our new strategic plan in fiscal year 2023, which included a new approach to building relationships in our rural communities, I was excited to be a part of the effort to reach the 11 counties surrounding Allen County.

Over the last year, our team piloted a new initiative with Community Foundation DeKalb County and Huntington County Community Foundation, and Community Foundation of Noble County, granting $50,000 to each community foundation to establish the Accessible Communities Fund to support nonprofit organizations serving individuals with intellectual and physical disabilities in their respective counties. Recently holding educational sessions in DeKalb, Huntington, and Noble Counties, our grant team has been working with our rural communities to better understand how they can build inclusive programs and spaces. AWS Foundation plans to unroll this to all 11 counties over the next several years and plans to announce the next partnerships soon.

If you’re an organization in DeKalb, Huntington, or Noble Counties looking for additional support for programs or initiatives serving individuals with intellectual or physical disabilities, we encourage you to reach out directly to your community foundation. For larger projects (above $5,000), we welcome you to reach out directly to our program team.

Requests for the Accessible Communities Funds at our local community foundations will be evaluated using AWS Foundation’s guiding principles.

We can’t wait to share more about the work happening to serve individuals with disabilities in our rural communities as these funds are distributed to make our rural communities more inclusive!

Joni Schmalzried presenting in Huntington County

Mandy Drakeford presenting in DeKalb County

Northeast Indiana Disability Advocacy Coalition (NEIDAC) has partnered with a team of Leadership Fort Wayne (LFW) classmates to increase awareness and access to voting for people with disabilities in Allen County. 

Leadership Fort Wayne is a signature adult civic leadership development program in Allen County designed for an annual group of emerging to seasoned professionals who have demonstrated their ability to achieve personal goals and a desire to serve the community. The nine-month immersive program includes opportunities for practical experiences like the Community Action Projects (CAP), where local non-profits are paired with a team of LFW classmates to create, develop, and implement an initiative. 

This year, NEIDAC launched an inclusive voting initiative with an LFW CAP team to address barriers individuals with disabilities may face when attempting to cast their ballots. Did you know only 23% of people voted in Allen County in the 2023 election? The turnout rate for individuals with disabilities was likely much lower as numerous barriers prevent participation. People with disabilities also have a 20% likelihood of having difficulties with voting in person, compared to 6 percent of people without a disability. Knowing this information, the LFW CAP team has set out to build relationships between NEIDAC and the Allen County Election Board and connect with voters with disabilities to encourage them to share their voices and learn about the various ways they can cast their votes. 

Since the start of the project, the LFW CAP team has connected with the Election Board to learn about their efforts in ensuring accessible voting options and polling locations, reviewing training materials for election volunteers, setting up media opportunities to build awareness on accessible voting options, and participated in the Disabilities Expo. In the coming months, the group will continue to build upon these efforts in raising awareness of voting options for people with disabilities, including building an accessible information webpage for the Allen County Board of Elections website.

LFW team shares disability voting initiative with Disabilities Expo attendees

Members of the LFW CAP team: (L to R) Halie Brown, Curtis Metz, Jessa Campbell

The team's display at the Disabilities Expo

Indianadisabilityresourcefinder.org is an online resource designed to collect and organize contact and service information from providers across Indiana, giving you 24/7 access to the community resources aimed to improve your quality of life. The site is always in need of professionals, volunteers and organizations to contribute to our growing list of services and information.

There are three ways to become a resource for the FINDER community:

1. Share a link to a helpful website or service.

2. Upload an informative article or video.

3. Join FINDER as a Service Provider.

A simple four-step registration process for new FINDER contributors and providers is available at IndianaDisabilityResourceFINDER.org. All submissions are reviewed and verified prior to publication.

You can also claim a listing that already exists. Go to IndianaDisabilityResourceFINDER.org and search for your organization. On the provider page, you will see the following button:

Click that button and follow the instructions to claim. It's that easy!

We are happy to have members of the community use our universally designed meeting space for free. Periodically we supply the Community Food Pantries set up by Forward Indiana. We have a bin in our office to take donations for these pantries. If you're using our space and your group would like to help, bring us nonperishable food, hygiene items, formula, or winter supplies (hats, gloves, scarves, or hot hands) and we will be sure these valuable pantries are restocked.

The Gilmore Inclusive Arts Grant awards up to $25,000 to one applicant each year to support special projects focused on including people with disabilities in the local arts communities of Northeast Indiana. The application is currently open and closes September 27. For more information, go to our website.