One of the key issues identified by youth with disabilities is the lack of education about Disability History in California schools. We launched our 2010 community organizing campaign in celebration of the 20th Anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The campaign will focus on developing a youth organizing strategy to engage decision makers to support a resolution to require California public schools to infuse instruction and activities related to disability history into the existing school curriculum.
This advocacy effort is associated with the Advocacy Agenda created at the 2008 and 2009 Youth Leadership Forum for Students with Disabilities (YLF) and is in association with the advocacy efforts of the Museum of Disability History. Our goal is to have the Governor, the Legislature and the Superintendent of Schools declare that one week of instruction in California Schools emphasize the teaching of Disability History. We are advocating that Disability History Week be declared during the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the week of July 26th, 2010.
Through this advocacy agenda, we will organize, educate and connect youth with disabilities across California to develop leadership skills through volunteerism, letter writing, public speaking, and developing community partnerships.
We will measure our success by determining the number of California youth with disabilities who report that they have made presentations, written letters, sent post cards, collected petitions in their communities, and those who take action on Facebook and through e-advocacy actions about the importance of Disability History. Ultimately, we will determine our success based on the number of youth we are able to organize and mobilize to take leadership in their local communities, and if we are successful in obtaining a resolution to declare that California Schools shall infuse Disability History curriculum into their lessons plans for one week annuhttp://wwally.
