Why The Nora Project Matters to Us
Happy 5th Birthday from Aspire
Last month, The Nora Project celebrated our fifth birthday. Today, our dear friend Clare Killy from Aspire honors this milestone with a reflection on what TNP means, and the work that we’re doing together.
At Aspire, our tagline is "Together, We're Better." As a well-established nonprofit committed to disability inclusion, these words reinforce our core belief that communities are stronger, richer and better off when fully inclusive of people with disabilities. Furthermore, it emphasizes the idea that the development of inclusive communities requires a collective effort. An effort that includes families, professionals, schools, providers, businesses, institutions, policy makers (and the list goes on), all working together. What connections can we draw from this never-ending list of stakeholders? One central theme - people. It takes each of us, and it takes all of us, to build inclusive communities. While this idea is promising and hopeful, it's also complicated and challenging. Here's why.
We know that people are uniquely complex products of their environments and experiences. As a result of these factors over time, we develop often fixed perceptions of people, ideas or settings with which we've had limited experience. These perceptions become embedded in the ways we talk, think, act and the impact we create. For decades, policies (or lack thereof) have limited access and resources for people with disabilities. For decades, popular media has reinforced problematic stereotypes about people with disabilities. For decades, platforms have neglected to elevate the voices and stories of people with disabilities. And for decades, people with disabilities have had limited opportunities to fully engage in inclusive experiences in their communities. These facts only scratch the surface and this history has been beyond detrimental to the lives, livelihood and well-being of people with disabilities and their families. This history has also been a loss for people without disabilities who, as a result, have developed deeply rooted misperceptions of disability. It's been a loss for classrooms and workplaces and boardrooms. It's been a loss for entire communities.
So, how do we work to overcome decades of misperceptions? Well, it takes work. It takes intentional effort from people without disabilities to unlearn problematic and harmful narratives about disability, to stop and listen to the stories and lived experiences of people with disabilities, to create the rightful space for people with disabilities at the table, and to partner with people with disabilities to make this possible. This requires asking ourselves hard questions, critically observing how our assumptions influence our behaviors, and speaking up to push the development of truly inclusive environments. These efforts are not only possible for all of us, but they are absolutely necessary for long term change.
The good news? There are abundant opportunities for us as adults to continually shift our perceptions toward a more inclusive lens. We CAN unlearn and rebuild our mindsets, and this is already happening. Aspire is partnering with countless businesses and organizations who are ready to step up and build more inclusive environments. We're supporting the cultivation of inclusive attitudes, the adoption of inclusive behaviors and the development of inclusive systems. Progress is happening, but there's a long way to go.
The better news? The committed work to unlearning and rebuilding doesn't always have to be a part of this story. Here's why. The Nora Project.
“When I first learned about The Nora Project, the concept just made sense for so many reasons.”
As a former early childhood educator, I've always viewed classrooms as a microcosm of a larger community. It's where we create our earliest experiences working with others, discovering our contributions to a group, getting a turn to speak and learning to listen. Yes, of course, we learn a lot of other valuable academic skills while in school -- but above all else, it's where we learn to be together, to be part of something with others. So naturally, classrooms would be a logical place to practice working and communicating with people who have diverse experiences, often different from our own. That's what The Nora Project is doing.
As a child development specialist, I also understand that by the time children start preschool they’ve already begun making observations and formulating judgements about differences between themselves and others. This may include observations about clothing, interests or skills - but also includes observations about skin color, gender, how someone communicates or moves, or doesn't do either. With observation comes questions and with questions comes the need for supported processing and conversation with adults. So naturally, classrooms would be a logical place to practice complex dialogue and critical thinking about how we view ourselves and others. That's what The Nora Project is doing.
Some may say that this idea of talking about disability is too complicated for children to understand. The reality is, this topic is often too complicated for us as adults to articulate. Perhaps we're scared of saying the wrong things, feel ill-equipped or underinformed. Perhaps we just started having these conversations ourselves and are still experiencing our own learning. Regardless of the why, none of these are good reasons to perpetuate this same cycle for the next generation. The Nora Project pushes back on this dynamic and empowers children to be comfortable with conversation and reflective questioning, to develop friendships with and learn from peers with disabilities, and to teach us as adults what we may not have had the opportunity to learn early on. The Nora Project empowers students not only to be inclusive, empathetic and kind people, but to view these traits as the leadership skills that they are. In doing so, they're helping to shape a future led in partnership by people with disabilities and people without disabilities. So naturally, they don't have to spend so much time unlearning and rebuilding like we did - and they can focus on just plain learning and building, together.
That's why Aspire is proud to call The Nora Project a friend, a partner and a fellow advocate. It's why we send our deepest congratulations as The Nora Project celebrates its 5th birthday. And it's why we can't wait for a future where The Nora Project's students are the ones leading the way.
Here’s to many more years of impact!
Sincerely,
Clare Killy
Director of Inclusive Solutions at Aspire
Learn more about Aspire Chicago in this partner feature blog post or listen as TNP’s very own Katy Fattaleh and TNP teacher Kerry Duffey participate in an episode of Aspire’s Amplify Inclusion Podcast.