Podcasts

The History and Future of D.C.’s Project ACTION! Part I: The Leadership

Season 2, Episode 1 — 9 March 2018

This is part one of a two part series on Project ACTION!, a coalition of self-advocates and self-advocacy groups from the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia (part two is here). ACTION! stands for Advocacy, Change, Training, Information, Organizing and Networking. The YES! Center’s Dale Verstegen talks to Ricardo Thornton and Thomas Mangrum, the President and Vice President, about the founding of Project ACTION!, the nuts and bolts of how they run the organization and the future of their organizing and activism.

Ricardo Thornton is the President of Project ACTION!



Thomas Mangrum, Jr. is the Vice President of Project ACTION!



Dale Verstegen is a Senior Research Associate at TranScen and one of the State Liaison for the YES! Center.
Announcer: You’re listening to YES! To Employment, a podcast series that seeks to improve competitive, integrated employment outcomes for transition-aged youth and young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.



This is part one of a two-part series on the District of Columbia’s Project ACTION!. In part one the YES! Center’s Dale Verstegen talks to Ricardo Thornton and Thomas Mangrum about the founding of Project ACTION!, the nuts and bolts of how they run the organization and the future of their organizing and activism.



In part two Dale talks to Rebecca Salon and Phyllis Holton about their support role for an advocacy organization led by people with disabilities.



Complete transcript forthcoming



Announcer: You’ve been listening to YES! To Employment, a podcast that seeks to improve competitive, integrated employment outcomes for transition-aged youth and young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.



To learn more about Project ACTION!, visit https://www.dcqualitytrust.org/families/join-project-action/. Or you can email Phyllis Holton at pholton@dcqualitytrust.org, or call her at 202-448-1458. Project ACTION! meets every Saturday at the Kennedy Institute of Catholic Charities, located at 801 Buchanan Street NE, Washington, DC 20017.



For more about YES! To Employment, including show notes, links to the resources discussed, a complete transcript and a schedule of episodes, visit www.yestoemployment.org/podcast. You can subscribe through iTunes or your favorite Android podcast app to have the series delivered automatically to your device so you never miss an episode. If you enjoyed today’s episode, please give us a rating on iTunes. Ratings will help us get the series in front of more listeners.



YES! To Employment is a production of the Youth Employment Solutions Center, the national Training and Technical Assistance Center that serves as a hub of information and expertise for the Partnerships in Employment (PIE) state projects. The YES! Center is a collaboration of TASH and TransCen. You can learn more about TASH at tash.org and more about TranCen at transcen.org. You can receive updates from the YES! Center on this podcast and our other activities by following us on Facebook or on twitter at @YEStoEmployment.



Partnerships in Employment is a series of seed grants funded by the Administration for Community Living’s Administration on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, made to states for the purpose of transforming state disability support systems to competitive, integrated employment. AIDD is dedicated to ensuring that individuals with developmental disabilities and their families are able to fully participate in, and contribute to all aspects of community life in the United States and its territories.



Music for YES! To Employment is an original composition and performance by Sunny Cefaratti, the Co-Director and Autistic Self Advocacy Mentor at the Musical Autist. You can learn more about the Musical Autist at www.themusicalautist.org.



Be sure to keep YES! To Employment on your list: we’ll have another episode on competitive integrated employment for you in the near future.



This interview was originally recorded on 14 December 2017.



The audio of this interview and the transcript have been lightly edited for clarity.

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