Tulsa Area Alliance on Disabilities

Within the context of the life-span model, the Alliance works to fulfill its mission through a number of strategies. Highlights:

Alliance updates - 2004

The Tulsa Area Alliance on Disabilities was formed in 1990 to ensure the full participation of people with disabilities in all aspects of community life. The Alliance endorses community inclusion, independence, and healthy interdependence for persons with disabilities through research, planning, development, policy and program evaluation. The Alliance oversees initiatives for community education and policies that contribute to systems change.

In recent years the Alliance has focused on increasing access to employment for persons with disabilities by creating and participating in large job fairs designed to guide other job fairs, demonstrating accessible interviewing and hiring practices and helping host a Day at the Capitol on Employment. The Alliance also uses wide scale marketing techniques to promote the benefits of hiring persons with disabilities, reaching most Tulsans through the media. In 2002, the lifespan campaign involved over 500 volunteers and over 3000 hours of volunteer service for change in the area of full community participation for people with disabilities. This education and awareness work brings local citizens with and without disabilities together to research, plan, and implement social marketing strategies, and model best and effective practices using a lifespan strategy for ensuring integration of Tulsans with disabilities.

In 2002 the Alliance re-disseminated Oklahoma’s first access manual guiding job fairs to 26 new employers (5,000 copies had been distributed the prior year), while Co-Chairing the City of Tulsa’s largest Diversity Job Fair with QuikTrip with over 1,000 participants with and without disabilities.

The Alliance also sponsored family meetings with DHS, and now reaches more than 3000 Oklahoman families and individuals with disabilities statewide, disseminating information on effective practices and policies.

The Alliance continues to sustain an early inclusion network of providers and Head Start educators who explore early learning needs for young children with disabilities, support solutions, and assist in developing local resources to fill gaps in services. The Alliance was instrumental in initiating a Tulsa Public School Steering Committee on Special Education, and co-hosted the 2nd annual parent conference with TPS, bringing Dr. Mel Levine, noted neurologist on learning, to Tulsa as the keynote speaker. Over 800 families attended this conference.

The Alliance serves on many statewide and local coalitions, boards, and planning committees advocating for full participation of citizens with disabilities, including organizations like the Oklahoma Task force on Child Abuse, Tulsa’s Fair Housing Partnership, The Mayor’s Commission on the Concerns of Tulsans with Disabilities, the ABLETech Foundation for low interest assistive technology loans & Advisory Board, the Mental Health Association Policy Committee, and the Tulsa Children’s Consortium.

The Alliance continues volunteer staff support for the Oklahoma Policy Consortium for Persons with Disabilities and advocates for relevant policies on the state level; nine advocacy organizations are currently members from across the state. This year, the Alliance led the effort to establish the first legislated Olmstead Strategic Planning Committee in the nation to create the state’s required and dynamically working plan to ensure that people with diverse disabilities are served in the most integrated settings possible.

The Alliance has moved forward to establish a new “Count Us In” campaign focusing on Early Intervention and Early Childhood Development in Tulsa County. The emphasis on the campaign is the age group of zero to eight with developmental and related disabilities. The Alliance will work with disabilities agencies and health agencies to identify assets as well as conduct a “gap analysis” for Tulsa County to describe disparities between available resources and most important needs. This study will develop recommendations, laying out more effective roles by key stakeholders, as well as recommended delivery of major early intervention supports and services.

Recipients of the Alliance's services:
 Over 500 volunteer/advocates
 3000 family members and advocates
 26 employers
 More than 1000 interfaith advocates, family members, leaders, and congregations
 300 service providers
 1000 Tulsa County prospective job candidates with and without disabilities
 Over 50,000 citizens in the community receiving marketing materials
 20% of the state’s population with disabilities benefiting from policy changes implemented due to the Olmstead Plan and other policy changes from this past session

The Alliance is the only organization that brings together all Tulsa County disability organizations and diverse leadership and civic volunteers, while working on the state level, bringing most of the state advocacy organizations together to work to ensure full participation of people with disabilities in all aspects of community life. Specific outcomes include:
 Successful implementation of the largest Tulsa Public School Parent Conference with over 800 attendees and over 100 civic volunteers. Initial meetings to establish a Special Education Steering Committee
 Passage of numerous policy changes on the state level, including:
       - Medicaid reform to ensure program outcomes
       - Wheelchair transport reform
       - Insurance reform on hearing aids for children
 Endorsement of arresting the death penalty for people with mental retardation (implemented by the Supreme Court)
 Appropriations for Oklahoma’s Tech project and increased provider rates
 The first State legislated Olmstead Strategic Planning Committee, engaging more than 3,000 advocates, impacting the state’s entire population with diverse disabilities
 Hosting the city’s first fair housing Fair—It’s all about Housing, engaging over 50 volunteers, and reaching over 150 Tulsans
 Making possible (through the ABLETech foundation) over 80 low interest loans for Oklahomans with disabilities for assistive technology
 Co-sponsoring over 15 statewide successful national and state grant proposals for related organizations as a grant partner and program participant

To learn more about the Alliance, contact Carla Tanner at 585-5551 - Community Service Council, 16 East 16th Street, Tulsa, Oklahoma 74119

The Tulsa Area Alliance on Disabilities

Why the Alliance?

Some facts about disabilities

Concerns identified by Alliance research

A life-span model guides the Alliance

Highlights of Alliance initiatives