IMPACT:Ability created by IMPACT Boston and Triangle Inc., gives people with disabilities the skills to prevent and stop abuse and live to their maximum potential. This training also equips organizations that serve people with disabilities to expand their capacity to recognize and prevent abuse. Prepare Inc. provides IMPACT:Ability programs in the tri-state area.
IMPACT:Ability training is especially important, given that over 70% of people with disabilities say they’ve been abused, which is 4 times the rate of the general population.
Despite staggeringly higher rates of abuse, few programs exist to teach people with disabilities how to protect and assert themselves. But together, we can change this and empower individuals of all abilities.
IMPACT:Ability uses a proven, evidence-based training approach to help people with disabilities combat the disproportionate violence and abuse they experience through safety instruction and assertive communication skills.
“…a phenomenal program that could not have done a better job of meeting our students’ needs. Our students vary greatly in regard to their cognitive, social and verbal abilities, and some of their disabilities are quite severe. This program scaffolded skills, language and gestures so effectively that every student walked away successful and confident with what they learned.”
-Brandi Hughes-Stein, MS Ed., NCSP, PS811, Queens
IMPACT:Ability classes give students the opportunity to learn to assert and protect themselves in unsafe and uncomfortable situations that involve both strangers and people they know. Situations include inappropriate conversations, unwelcome attention, harassment, and bullying, and students are taught how to report and access help from trusted adults.
All concepts and skills are taught using hands-on, concrete scenarios, and are an ideal support/supplement to travel training and transition to work preparation.
IMPACT:Ability’s evidence-based individual and organizational training approach is strongly aligned with national best practices for educating individuals with intellectual and/or physical disabilities. These practices include teaching through simulations or actual scenarios, emphasizing hands-on tasks that gradually progress in difficulty, and providing immediate feedback.
IMPACT:Ability is appropriate for a wide range of mobility and communication styles, and can be adapted to any learning level.
IMPACT:Ability training impacts disability services and special education by creating organizational cultures and policies that support safety and self-efficacy for people with disabilities. People with disabilities are less vulnerable when they have control over their bodies while receiving personal care assistance. Organizations that work with people with disabilities are safer when staff has the knowledge, skills and institutional support to challenge individuals whose actions are abusive or potentially abusive.
IMPACT:Ability’s organizational abuse prevention strategy is based on the Diffusions of Innovations Theory. This evidence-based public health strategy is focused on the idea that when socially influential people express support for new ideas, practices or behavior changes, individuals who perceive them as leaders are likely to follow, particularly when these opinion leaders take an active role in diffusion.
The benefits of this training reach far beyond the skills necessary for personal safety and the corresponding freedom from unnecessary fear. Individuals develop an embodied sense of confidence and power by learning that they have the ability to advocate for themselves and others. Our work has a lasting impact in communities as program participants influence and educate others at home, school, and in the workplace.
“Students who have participated in the IMPACT: Ability course are more informed and prepared to access and navigate the community, public transport and the world of work. They have engaged in dialogue, role played and practiced scenarios to better prepare them for increased independence.”
– Jack McCauley, Boston
Please contact [email protected] to discuss how we can work with your organization or school.