Disability Options Network News

Hi everyone,

I met many of you at this past national action, but for those of you
who I didn’t get a chance to meet/talk to, I am third-year undergraduate at
the University of Michigan pursuing an independent major in Community
Empowerment Studies. For my senior thesis project, I am interested in developing an organizational history of ADAPT and examining the ways in which ADAPT’s structure and tactics have influenced the disability community and empowered people with disabilities to demand their rights through non-violent action.

Basically, I am looking to spend the first half of next year (January - June
2006) visiting or talking to different local and regional ADAPT groups to
see how they have historically organized and currently organize to create change on the local, state, and national level. I am in the midst of putting together a project proposal in which I need to outline a rationale for where I will be going and what I hope to learn/gather from each visit.

Obviously, as much as I would like to visit everyone, financial, logistical,
and time restrictions are going to limit my itinerary to somewhere between 9 and 12 local or state groups. So, if you (i.e. your ADAPT group) would be
interested in being profiled in my thesis, please e-mail me at swatkin@umich.edu and let me know!! I would like to have a diverse sample of groups, and include chapters who are a newer, older, have an ethnically diverse membership, a large number of youth or former nursing home residents, an effective way of fundraising, any particularly significant victories or dramatic or unique actions, etc.

Thanks so much for your time and I look forward to hearing from you!!

FREE OUR PEOPLE!!

Sarah Watkins — Michigan ADAPT