Elevate: Campaign Training for People with Disabilities kicked off on Monday, June 3 with the first-ever run for office training for people with disabilities who are interested in running for elected office! Did you happen to miss it? If so, make sure to head over to www.ncil.org/elevate to watch the recording of the 90-minute webinar, led by Neal Carter, Principal, Nu View Consulting and Atima Omara, Principal, Omara Strategy Group. In this webinar, Neal and Atima covered the basics for launching a campaign and provided an overview of essential campaign skills like messaging and fundraising. These skills will be covered more deeply in the remaining four webinars.

Do you want to learn how to run a successful campaign for elected office? Sign up before noon Eastern to join us today for the first part of a five-week boot camp on core skills for running for office. Elevate: Campaign Training for People with Disabilities features five expert political consultants who will tell you everything you need to know about kickstarting your campaign, crafting your message as a candidate, communicating with voters, selecting campaign staff, and fundraising. It is ideal for the first-time candidate, as well as anybody who wants to support candidates with disabilities as campaign staff, future campaign managers, or volunteers. This training is non-partisan and open to all!

Course Descriptions Now Available for Elevate: Campaign Training for People with Disabilities

Course descriptions are now available for Elevate: Campaign Training for People with Disabilities. This five-week webinar series will teach participants the skills they need to run a campaign for local elected office, including creating operations, communications, fundraising, and voter outreach. This course is open to everyone, and we particularly encourage multi-marginalized people with disabilities to join us as we learn from five experienced political consultants of color about how to run for office.

Participants will be sent presentation materials in accessible formats 48 hours before each webinar. If you need additional accommodations or have questions, please contact Sarah Blahovec, Disability Vote Organizer, at [email protected] or 202-207-0334 ext. 1103.

Visit ncil.org/elevate to register and find updates as the series approaches.

People with disabilities are one fifth of the population. Many of us are great leaders in our communities and our professions due to skills that we’ve developed advocating for ourselves and others: we’re adaptable, resilient, creative, and great at problem solving.

Perhaps you have been thinking about how to take your leadership to a new level. You’ve considered running for local school board, city council, or another local leadership position but you don’t know where to start, and the idea of running a political campaign is intimidating. If you’re ready to elevate your leadership to elected office, this training series is for you!

Have you experienced access barriers as a voter with a disability in previous elections? NCIL is working with the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs to learn more about voters with disabilities’ experience with voting, particularly any access barriers they have encountered that have made it difficult or impossible to cast a ballot. These barriers include but are not limited to physically inaccessible polling places, difficult interactions with poll workers, and problems with casting a ballot on voting equipment. In addition, we are also looking to hear from voters who have had difficulty registering to vote or navigating their local election office’s website and finding important voter information.

If you have experienced a challenge or a barrier while voting, please contact Disability Vote Organizer Sarah Blahovec at [email protected] or 202-207-0334 extension 1103 to share your story. 

Are you considering running for a local elected office but don’t know where to start? Do you have the drive to run for school board or city council, but you’re intimidated by the prospect of fundraising or concerned about potential access barriers? You’re not alone. Although one in six voters has a disability, there are surprisingly few resources and programs dedicated to teaching people with disabilities how to run for elected office. To that end, with the financial support of the American Association of People with Disabilities and the Paul G. Hearne Emerging Leader Award, NCIL is developing a series of accessible online campaign training workshops to be held in late spring and early summer of 2019. 

This webinar series will train participants on the basics skills they need to run their first political campaign, including operations, field organizing, communications, and fundraising. It will be conducted from a cross-disability perspective, with insights on how to tailor campaign operations to work with your access needs, as well as how to talk about your disability authentically within the scope of your campaign. NCIL has partnered with NuView Consulting, a disability-owned, minority-owned consulting firm which has over 14 years of experience in political campaigns of all sizes. These training workshops will be intentionally led by campaign experts of color who have extensive experience with underrepresented communities. 

The National Council on Independent Living is a 501c3 nonprofit and a non-partisan organization, and workshops are for educational purposes only. NCIL does not provide support or endorsement to any candidates for elected office. 

Registration and additional information will be available shortly. These webinars are offered free of charge to NCIL members. However, we always welcome donations to support NCIL’s work around voting rights and running for office.  You can donate through our donation page.  Check ‘Yes’ under “I would like to donate to direct my money to a specific fund” and select “Voting Rights & Civic Engagement” from the drop down menu. If you would like receive more information about these webinars and other NCIL offerings, become a NCIL member today.