Access-Ability Resource Committee (AARC)
The Access-Ability Resource Committee (AARC) provides leadership, resources, and support to the BBBSEM community to address access barriers and create a culture of awareness and celebration of all abilities. AARC collaborates with agency stakeholders and other Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) teams to achieve agency values of Innovation, Representation, & Inclusion.
The vision of AARC is to strengthen, empower, and educate our staff, volunteers, and families. Through the use of collaborative advocacy and inclusive practices from a disability justice perspective, our goal is to create an accessible community. As an agency, our priority is serving current and future matches with an informed, empathetic, and equitable approach. There is no one-size-fits-all solution to creating guidelines when it comes to accessibility. AARC will tailor recommendations in partnership with agency leadership to meet the needs of specific departments. By doing so, we will contribute to the BBBSEM vision of healthier families, better schools, brighter futures, and stronger communities.
OUR GOALS
Awareness and Celebration
- Creation of a programming calendar in collaboration with additional DEI committees
- Celebration of Disability Awareness Month (October 2020) and other relevant dates of cultural significance
- Quarterly Lunch & Learns
- Monthly resource blast
Policies and Practices
- Conduct a “Disability Inclusion Assessment” to target priorities for policy review
- Implement a system for feedback from families and volunteers, staff, and partners
- Capture demographic data
- Utilize Salesforce processes to capture current demographics
- Utilize intake process to capture potential match demographics
Education
- Target outputs of the Programs team
- Create and proliferate an Accessible Match Activities Guide
- Begin creation of an Accessibility Language Guide to be distributed to volunteers and staff
- Update all external facing documents and resources to be screen-reader friendly, accessibly formatted, etc