TITLE: Bridging the gap: A national directory of services for women and girls with disabilities
AUTHOR: National Clearinghouse on Women and Girls with Disabilities
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1990
The National Clearinghouse on Women and Girls with Disabilities has compiled a national directory of services and support groups for women and girls with disabilities. This document contains more than three hundred listings of organizations that provide services to meet the needs of women and/or girls with disabilities. Each entry includes the agency's or organization's name, address, telephone number, contact person, region served, date established, whether they respond to inquiries by phone or by mail, if they have a newsletter, and a brief description of their programs and services. The services included in this directory cover a wide range of areas of importance for women with disabilities such as educational services and offices of disability services at universities; support groups and other self-help groups for women with disabilities; government and non-government organizations focusing on or including women with disabilities; generic services which also provide services for women with disabilities such as rape crises and planned parenthood; and more. This is a unique directory that will be of extreme importance for women with disabilities in terms of breaking the isolation they so often experience and helping them find appropriate services and supports. As the first national directory of services and support groups for women with disabilities, it will undoubtedly serve to help women with disabilities find each other and build connections.
This section lists resources for those who are interested in starting a networking or mentoring projects for women or girls with disabilities. The resources listed here have all been developed by the Networking Project for Disabled Women and Girls in New York City.
Networking Project for Young Adults with Disabilities
YWCA of the City of New York
610 Lexington Avenue
New York, NY 10022
(212) 735-9766
This project was originally started in 1984 by Harilyn Rousso and is run by the YWCA in New York City. The project is designed to address the lack of visible role models for girls and women with disabilities. It involves the development of a network of successful women with disabilities from a wide range of occupational fields and the use of this network to provide role models for young women with disabilities.
The Networking Project has recently added several new components designed to enable young women with disabilities to take their rightful place in society as independent productive adults. Among these are an advocacy training program, a pre-employment training program, and a support group providing information and networking opportunities to women with disabilities ages 20-30 who are making the transition to adulthood.
The Networking Project is among the first of its type in the country and has served as a model for other networking and mentoring projects across the nation. Networking Project staff offer consultation for those who are interested in establishing networking/mentoring projects in their own communities and have available resource and training materials to assist people.
TITLE: Mentoring empowers: How to start a networking project in your community
AUTHOR: Rousso, H.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1988
The information in this manual is compiled by Harilyn Rousso who founded and directed the first networking project in New York City. The manual is intended to assist those who would like to start a networking project for women and girls with disabilities in their communities. It provides a description of the original Networking Project, its history and philosophy, and describes how other communities have replicated the project. The manual also provides guidelines on how to start a networking project, including how to establish a diverse network of women with disabilities, how to set up a community advisory board, how to organize networking conferences, and follow-up mentoring activities. The packet concludes with an extensive list of resources including materials developed by the Networking Project, and an extended collection of sample documents to get a project off the ground such as outreach letters, program agendas, and training curricula from the original project in New York City. This is a very practical guide for those who are interested in starting a networking/mentoring project.
Networking Across the Generations:
A Conference for Disabled Women and Girls
The Networking Project for Disabled Women and Girls
YWCA of the City of New York
610 Lexington Avenue
New York, NY 10022
(212) 735-9766
A twenty-minute videotape that offers an introduction to the Networking Project by presenting highlights from one of the New York project's first events, "A Networking Conference for Disabled Women and Girls," held in November 1984. This videotape also provides an overview of some of the issues facing women with disabilities in today's society.
The organizations listed below are two major women's organizations that have made an effort to include women with disabilities.
National Women's History Project
7738 Bell Road
Windsor, CA 95492
(707) 838-6000
This organization was established in 1981 as an educational nonprofit corporation to promote multicultural study of women's history in schools. Their women's history resource service has available a wealth of resources about women's history including books, posters, and curriculum materials. The NWHP Resource Service Catalog contains more than 300 items that are both intended for children and adults. This organization has attempted to include resources about women with disabilities in their resource catalog and address issues of importance to women with disabilities at their conferences.
National Women's Studies Association
University of Maryland
College Park, MD 20742-1325
(301) 454-3757
NWSA is one of the feminist associations which has made an effort to include women with disabilities. NWSA has a Disability Caucus which keeps up with issues of importance to women with disabilities and brings these issues to the attention of the Association. Members of the Disability Caucus also make sure that NWSA national conferences are accessible to women with disabilities. The contact person for NWSA Disability Caucus is Evee L. Smith. You can get more information by writing or calling her: P.O. Box 1339, Corvallis, Oregon 97339, Telephone: (503) 757-1503 or (503) 737-3628. You can also contact NWSA headquarters at the address above.
Listed below are journals and newsletters that focus solely on women with disabilities as well as periodicals that regularly include issues of gender and disability. Most of these periodicals are available in print, on tape, or in Braille. Although this is not an exhaustive list of periodicals it will hopefully be helpful for those who are looking for journals and newsletters that regularly include women with disabilities.
The Ragged Edge (formerly The Disability Rag)
P.O. Box 145
Louisville, KY 40201
The Ragged Edge (formerly The Disability Rag) is a monthly disability journal that regularly includes issues of importance to women with disabilities. This is a progressive, action oriented periodical which includes information about nationwide grass roots actions for change. A good journal for activists and people committed to disability rights.
Disability Studies Quarterly
1776 University Avenue, UA 4-6
Honolulu, HI 96822
Every issue of this disability newsletter contains a wealth of information about research, recent books, films, grants, conferences, and other resources. This newsletter regularly includes information relevant to women with disabilities and has published two theme issues on women with disabilities. The newsletter takes an interdisciplinary approach to disability studies.
Dykes, Disability, & Stuff
P.O. Box 6194
Boston, MA 02114
Dykes, Disability, & Stuff is a quarterly newsletter devoted to issues of importance to women who have disabilities, especially lesbian women with disabilities. This is an action oriented grassroots newsletter. The subscription is on an inclusive sliding scale in order to make it available to women who have fixed income. The aim is to make DD&S available free to women in institutions.
New Directions for Women
108 West Palisade Avenue
Englewood, NJ 07631
(201) 568-0226
New Directions for Women is a feminist newsletter published six times a year covering a wide range of issues of importance to women. The newsletter frequently includes articles and resources of importance to women with disabilities. A very good newsletter that keeps up with what is going on in the women's movement as well as keeping track of issues that affect women's lives.
Off Our Backs
1724 20th Street N.W.
Washington, DC 20009
Off Our Backs is a feminist newsletter published eleven times a year. This is a grassroots newsletter that covers a wide range of issues and regularly includes articles and other materials by and about women with disabilities.
Complete Elegance & Sisters
719 Second Avenue North
Seattle, WA 98109
These two journals are published by Re-Evaluation Counseling. They contain articles on counseling theory and practice. Many contributors to these journals write about their experiences with regard to liberation from oppression and internalized oppression. Complete Elegance is devoted to disability issues, and Sisters is the women's journal which frequently includes articles on women and disability.
Womyn's Braille Press, Inc.
P.O. Box 8475
Minneapolis, MN 55408
(612) 822-0549
The Womyn's Braille Press, offers feminist literature in print, on tape, and in braille. Their tape library contains a number of titles, and the press regularly circulates several feminist periodicals on cassette. It also publishes a quarterly newsletter, Womyn's Braille Press Newsletter, in braille or on tape that covers many issues of interest to women with disabilities. Subscription to the newsletter is on a sliding fee scale.