Liberation to Leadership: The Role of CILs in Transforming Communities (7 Hours)

Training Source: 
ILRU
Location: 
Berkeley, CA
Presenter(s): 
Sheri Burns
Robert Hand
Amina Donna Kruck
Paula McElwee
Stacey Milbern
Michael Galvan
Dolores Tejada
Beginning Date: 
09/15/2015
End Date: 
09/17/2015
Type of Training: 
On-demand

About the Training

Centers for Independent Living are in the business of facilitating empowerment for people with disabilities. Empowerment leads to full community participation and citizenship. Authentic citizenship leads to leadership and valued community roles, which impact systems, organizations, and the lives of others.

You will learn in the on-demand training how you can develop a process to empower and educate your consumers to seek and thrive in leadership positions. You'll learn directly from advocates and staff at different Centers how to best support consumers as you teach them about ableism and its intersection with other forms of structural oppression; how to move beyond internalized ableism and embrace disability pride and self-advocacy; and a proven model for helping consumers move into leadership positions, like community organizing and joining local boards, committees, and councils. 

Learning Objectives 

By the end of this training, participants will learn:

  • A process for empowerment.
  • How self-advocacy builds internal power.
  • The critical role of consumer-controlled goal setting.
  • The connection between ableism, racism, ageism, sexism, and other isms.
  • How inclusion of ALL people more completely allows liberation of people with disabilities.
  • How CILs can use the work of the Disability Justice movement to expand inclusion.
  • How to create opportunities for authentic leadership.
  • The roles people with disabilities can play on boards and committees, as spokespersons, and fully integrated community leaders and participants.
  • How to teach people to be effective participants on boards, committees, and councils.
  • The essential role of youth in a CIL's leadership development efforts.
  • How to connect the dots between becoming empowered and participating as fully in the community as one chooses.
  • Ways to assist individuals to move from self-advocacy to systems advocacy.

Target Audience

The training provides a framework for supporting consumer empowerment, broadening the scope of the IL definition of inclusion, creating opportunities for authentic leadership, and facilitating consumers' movement from liberation to leadership. Executive Directors, Program Managers, IL Specialists, other staff, and board members at centers interested in empowerment and leadership development would benefit most from this training.

Video/Training Materials/Resources

Below are links to the recorded sessions, the PowerPoint presentations, text transcripts of the presentations, and a link to additional resources. To view individual presentations, follow the links below. To view a catalog of presentations from this training visit

http://ilru.mediasite.com/mediasite/Catalog/Full/57c9654da2a3473fad66a054852acbff21

Module 1: Overview of Training and Objectives

Module 2: Oppression and Intersectionality Between "Isms"

Module 3: Embracing Disability Justice

Module 4: One CIL's Approach to Introducing Disability Liberation Theory

Module 5: Questions and Answers/Review of Day One

Module 6: Questions from Day One

Module 7: Using Disability Liberation Theory in CILs--One CILs Approach

Module 8: Developing Community Leaders

Module 9: CRIL's Community Leadership Academy--One CILs Experience

Module 10: Group Discussion on Leadership

Module 11: Teaching People How to Be Effective Participants in Boards, Committees, and Councils--A Panel Discussion with Academy Participants

Module 12: Succession Planning and Professional Leadership at CILs

Other Resources on Systems and Individual Advocacy