CDR’s Advocacy Team grew by leaps and bounds this summer. Of course, CDR is well known and widely respected for its strong commitment to “systems advocacy” – the kind of advocacy that advances disability rights on a societal level. While staff in all departments have opportunities to participate in systems advocacy, the Advocacy Team is at the core of CDR’s social change work, providing leadership, coordination and follow-through to make things happen.

In July, Diane Coleman joined the Team as Assistant Director of Advocacy. Diane has a law degree and MBA, and a long history in independent living and disability rights, having worked with ADAPT since 1987 and served for twelve years as Executive Director of the center for independent living in suburban Cook County, Illinois. She is also nationally known as the founder and President of Not Dead Yet, a grassroots disability rights group fights against legalization of assisted suicide and euthanasia (see www.notdeadyet.org). She will assist Chris Hilderbrant to oversee and implement CDR’s advocacy goals.

In August, three more advocates joined the Team. Stephanie Woodward is the new part time Transportation Advocate. Stephanie is active in the disability Youth movement, and interned with RCIL’s Doug Pease in youth transition this spring and summer. She’s well traveled, having studied abroad in Dublin, and has first hand experience as a user of public transit both there and here. She will help address transportation related calls and advocate regarding RGRTA bus service, Lift Line and other accessible transportation issues.

CDR’s new part time Civic Engagement Advocate is Jazzlin Allen. With her education in journalism, Jazzlin comes to CDR after interning with the Public Interest Research Group in Washington, DC. Her work at CDR will focus on empowerment and community organizing. She will be reaching out to people in the community, with and without disabilities, to train and assist them to use the processes of local government and civic organizations to resolve issues that concern them. Jazzlin will also play a big role in CDR’s upcoming Political Candidates Forum on October 23, 2008, and in conducting candidate surveys to help educate people about candidates’ positions on disability issues. Both part time advocates will report to CDR’s experienced Systems Advocate, Anita Cameron.

Finally, CDR has hired Leah Farrell as the new Policy Analyst in Albany. Leah is a native New Yorker with a Masters in Public Administration from the College of Charleston in South Carolina. She worked as a graduate assistant at the Joseph P. Riley Institute of Urban Affairs and Policy Studies, and then as a city planner before returning to New York. She will provide research and analysis on key public policy issues in state government, develop position papers that reflect disability rights concerns, starting with long term care services, and help ensure that CDR is well represented in a wide variety of policy meetings in the state capitol.

In short, CDR’s Advocacy Team has more than doubled in size in the last two months. Under the leadership of Bruce Darling, Chris Hilderbrant, Gene Spinning and the Board of Directors, and working along side Terrie Lincoln and Dean DeRusso, the Systems Advocate and Deaf Systems Advocate with the Regional Center for Independent Living, CDR’s Advocacy Team promises to increase the impact of our social justice efforts at the local, state and national levels.