The Western Pennsylvania Disability History and Action Consortium has received a $100,000 grant from the Community Archives initiative of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The two-year grant will build the Consortium’s capacity for ongoing preservation and sharing of Western Pennsylvania disability history.
The Consortium is a community archive that preserves and honors the struggle of people with disabilities to attain human and civil rights – and shares the lived experiences of today – in order to promote community access, participation and equal opportunity. Founded in 2015 by people with disabilities and community partners, the Consortium is dedicated to ensuring that people with disabilities are the primary and leading force in telling the story of disability rights.
The Andrew W. Mellon Community Archives Grant supports community-based archives that represent and serve communities marginalized due to oppression based on race, ethnicity, national origin, class, gender, sexuality, religion, or ability. People with disabilities are a historically oppressed and marginalized population that has struggled to attain rights, and which experiences high rates of poverty, unemployment, segregation, and abuse.
The Consortium is grateful to the Mellon Foundation for support which will enable ongoing preservation and the use of historic materials to actively advance the inclusion of people with disabilities in communities, generate discussion of contemporary issues, and promote policies and laws that ensure civil rights and social justice.
