ACI Recognized for Excellence in Making Vaccinations Available to Older Adults and People with Disabilities

The Alliance Center for Independence (ACI) and USAging in Washington, D.C. have been awarded the 2024 Immunization Neighborhood Champion Award by the National Adult and Influenza Immunization Summit (NAIIS) for their work through the Aging and Disability Vaccination Collaborative.

The NAIIS Immunization Excellence Awards recognize the extraordinary contributions of individuals and organizations towards improved vaccination rates within their communities during the past year.

The Alliance Center for Independence is a founding member of the ADVC, which works with Area Agencies on Aging (AAAs), Centers for Independent Living (CILs) and other community-based organizations (CBOs) nationwide with a network of over 1,400 partner organizations to increase the number of older adults and people with disabilities who receive COVID-19 and Influenza (flu) vaccines.

Access Link Evaluation Survey

Senator Vince Polistina, Assemblyman Don Guardian, and Assemblywoman Claire Swift of Atlantic County are seeking honest and personal responses about the quality of service provided by Access Link since 2021. These responses will help inform concrete policy changes that enhance the accessibility and functioning of Access Link.

Your responses will be kept confidential and are for informational purposes only.

Take the survey at the link below.

TAKE SURVEY

Posted on August 5, 2024 by Brian Mazzarella and filed under Advocacy.

ACI Celebrates the 34th Anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

A message from Carole Tonks and Nybil Ghanem about the ADA

The Americans with Disabilities Act is a ground-breaking civil rights law that protects the rights of those with disabilities and enables 61 million Americans to be fully included in society.

Today marks the 34th Anniversary of the signing of the ADA by President George H. W. Bush.

The ADA prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities in many areas of public life, including jobs, schools, transportation, and many public and private places that are open to the general public. The purpose of the law is to make sure that people with disabilities have the same rights and opportunities as everyone else.

Join ACI in celebrating the ADA and recognizing the hard work of 100s of advocates throughout the country to make this law possible. ACI also calls upon the disability community to keep the spirit of the ADA alive by advocating for greater enforcement, pointing out discrimination, complaining when faced with barriers, both attitudinal and physical, as well as spreading the word about the importance of this law, our civil rights law.

ACI is committed to ensuring that the promise of the ADA is realized and advocating against those who wish to weaken it.

For more information about the ADA, visit adata.org/learn-about-ada

MORE INFO

Posted on July 26, 2024 by Brian Mazzarella and filed under Advocacy.

Introducing...ACI Adventure News! 📰

Extra! Extra! Read all about it!

We are happy to announce the debut of ACI Adventure News! Featuring articles, interviews, photos, and more! This quarterly newspaper was created by our Volunteer Coordinator and Editor-in-Chief, Tia Washington and written entirely by ACI volunteers and consumers!

Read the first edition at the link below and enjoy!

DOWNLOAD Edition 1

Posted on July 8, 2024 by Brian Mazzarella and filed under Adventure News.

Happy Disability Pride Month!

Disability Pride Flag

The Disability Pride Flag, created in 2019 by Anne Magill, represents people with disabilities, their struggles, and the disability pride movement. The flag's colors and diagonal stripes have specific meanings:

Colors: Each color represents a different type of disability or impairment:
- Red: Physical disabilities
- Gold: Neurodivergence
- White: Invisible disabilities and disabilities that are not yet diagnosed
- Blue: Emotional and psychiatric disabilities
- Green: Sensory disabilities, including those of the deaf, blind, and deaf-blind communities
- Black: Mourning and rage over eugenics and neglect faced by disabled people
Stripes: The diagonal stripes represent cutting through barriers and solidarity among the various sub-communities of disabled people
Background: The faded black background represents mourning and rage

signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

Disability Pride is celebrated every July commemorating the anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) being signed into law. The ADA is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities in many areas of public life, including jobs, schools, transportation, and many public and private places that are open to the general public. The purpose of the law is to ensure that people with disabilities have the same rights and opportunities as everyone else. While we celebrate the passing of the ADA and the progress that has been made, we also remember those activists who crawled up the capitol steps and never stopped fighting. We must continue that fight until we live in a society that is equal for all.

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NJ Disability Pride Parade

In 2011, following in Chicago’s steps, ACI organized and hosted the first New Jersey Disability Pride Parade and Celebration (NJDPP) in Trenton. The event brought out 800 participants to celebrate ourselves, our community, our differences and our similarities, with music, vendors and fun. After hosting 7 parades, we went on hiatus when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. We are currently in the process of finding a new location for NJDPP and look forward to seeing you all in 2025! Keep an eye on our website for updates.

ACI wishes you all a Happy Disability Pride month! We will keep you posted on any events surrounding the ADA.

Posted on July 2, 2024 by Brian Mazzarella and filed under NJDPP.

Help Us Refurbish the ACI Bus!

On behalf of The Alliance Center for Independence, I am reaching out to humbly request your support and generous contribution towards our cause. We believe that your commitment to making a positive impact aligns perfectly with our mission and we kindly request your consideration in supporting our efforts.

As you know ACI, is a non-profit Center for Independent Living serving Middlesex, Somerset and Union counties. We work with all disabilities and ages throughout the community providing different skills so that those individuals can become and live as independently as possible.

We are writing to request a monetary donation. Your contribution will directly impact our ability to refurbish a bus so that we can make it a mobile center for those disabled individuals in underserved communities so to offer resources and assistance. In addition, this bus will allow our consumers and staff to be afforded the opportunity to visit different events throughout the State of New Jersey.

HealthCare Survey

Four years ago, the COVID-19 pandemic struck our nation…33,000 New Jerseyans lost their lives! An independent review of NJ's response to the emergency concluded that the state was grossly unprepared.

How were you affected? Please take this survey to help us make positive changes in the way healthcare services are provided to people with disabilities in NJ.

Need assistance filling this out? Contact Luke Koppisch at 732-738-4388.