|
Mobilize Waco is gathering steam and getting noticed!
Visibility
The statewide ripple effect of our 2023 Under-35 intersection audit continues. The project has received both formal and informal recognition around the state. Mobilize Waco has been held up as an exemplary grassroots effort at Statewide Active Transportation Plan working group meetings, board secretary Suzette May is getting noticed at pedestrian and traffic safety forums in Houston and Austin, and organizer Meg Wallace won the 2024 Community Champion Award from the Texas Council on Developmental Disabilities Partners in Policymaking Alumni Program and was invited to join its board of advisers. Speaking invitations are rolling in for Suzette. Most exciting, a firm that installs Accessible Pedestrian Signals (APS) has invited Suzette to speak to their workers about how these signals enable Blind pedestrians to navigate intersections safely.
We made a splash with our July 26 ADA celebration at Southern Roots Brewing Company in downtown Waco, where we toasted the 34th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act with a Rolling HOT Blonde. Southern Roots had renamed its signature brew, the HOT Blonde, for the week and shared the proceeds with Mobilize Waco. Thanks Southern Roots!
And we’re continuing to enjoy hosting Living It, our interview program on KWBU, Waco’s very own NPR station. This summer we heard from Josh Carney of the Waco Family Medicine Foundation about his experiences in the local mental health system, fellow KWBU host Ross Burns about cochlear implants, and Mobilizer Curtis Graves about coaching baseball in Waco's Challenger League. Locals can turn in every third Friday at 11:30 am and 8:00 pm, at 103.3 FM. If you miss the live show, you can listen online any time.
Access
We have completed our ambitious Waco Drive intersection assessment! Over the course of three months, teams of Mobilizers assessed every signaled intersection along a five-mile stretch of Waco Drive, and many of the unsignaled intersections between. We are now preparing our report on the project for submission to TxDOT. These audits work! Our Under-35 audit in 2023 turned up multiple problems with Accessible Pedestrian Signals (APS). We pointed these out to TxDOT, and were delighted to discover that the APS along Waco Drive work a whole lot better. Thank you, TxDOT, for inviting our input, listening closely, and making the changes we hoped to see!
Waco civic leaders are seeking us out for guidance on accessibility. We visited the new East Waco site of the Waco Downtown Farmers Market to offer input on parking there, we’re collaborating with the city tourism department to build their online content for disabled visitors, and we're looking forward to teaming up with Waco Transit to help get the word out about its accessible new Microdash microtransit offering.
Leadership
Mobilize Waco is leading an effort to improve availability of durable medical equipment and nondurable personal supplies widely used by people with disabilities and chronic illnesses. This partnership with a major local medical provider will collaborate with home health agencies to collect donations of unneeded supplies and equipment and distribute them to people who need them but cannot afford to purchase them.
We’re calling the partnership Grandy’s Stash in honor of Mobilize Waco organizer Meg Wallace’s mother, Patricia Murphy Sweeney (Grandy to her grandkids; Pat to her friends), who died on July 18, 2024, after a years-long journey with dementia. Pat was a brilliant resource manager, creative problem solver, and powerful leader whose work as president of the board at Greater Cincinnati Behavioral Health benefited the disability community in the city where she raised her family. Mom, this one’s for you.
Join us!
Here are three ways you can get on board with Mobilize Waco:
1. Come to our monthly Action Team meetings! We meet the third Tuesday of every month at 6 pm at Bitty & Beau’s in downtown Waco. After each meeting we head over to Ninfa’s for social time. Meetings are hybrid, so you can join us even if you can’t travel in. Sign up to receive meeting reminders and Zoom links.
2. Come to a profit-share fund-raiser! They’re a great way to meet other Mobilizers and get in on the fun. The next two are on Thursday, September 19, at Bitty & Beau’s, from 9 to 11 am, and on Thursday, October 24, at On the Border, from 11 am to 9 pm (be sure to Mobilize Waco at On the Border).
3. Donate! Or better yet, both donate and invite us to talk to your friends and associates about how they can help us make more of these good things happen.
Thank you for your continued interest in our work. We hope you have a beautiful and peaceful autumn.
Meg |
