Moving Towards Inclusive Advocacy: Building Disability Power - Health & Medicine Policy Research Group

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Moving Towards Inclusive Advocacy: Building Disability Power

Jul 31, 2019

On Wednesday, July 31st, Health & Medicine Policy Research Group and the Chicago Area Schweitzer Fellowship presented the 2019 Schweitzer Leadership Award to Amber Smock of Access Living at “Moving Towards Inclusive Advocacy: Building Disability Power”. The Award honors an individual who has done significant work to mitigate the social determinants of health in their community, and whose commitment to service has influenced and inspired others. We would like to express our gratitude for  Smock’s deeply impactful presentation, engaging discussion, and ongoing commitment to the multifaceted disability community and movement. We would also like to recognize the powerful work of Access Living, ADA 25, and Disability Power for Community Integration as these groups continue to work towards social justice.

Read disability justice resources, including Amber’s presentation, at the links below:

Amber Smock has served as the Director of Advocacy at Access Living since 2010. Amber is responsible for executing Access Living’s advocacy vision through policy, community organizing, leadership development, and issue education. She stewards Access Living’s strategic advocacy partnerships and significant networking efforts at the local, state, and national levels across a range of disability topics, including healthcare/home and community based services, housing, education, transportation, racial justice, immigration, and incarceration of people with disabilities in jails. Amber is the facilitator of the federal-state working group Disability Power for Community Integration. Amber is a skilled presenter and trainer, a member of ADA25 and Leadership Greater Chicago, and a recipient of numerous local and national awards for her disability advocacy. Amber is also a proud member of the Deaf community who grew up in mainstreamed schools, learned ASL as a young adult, and now relies on ASL interpreters and video relay technologies as well as lipreading for communication access.