The Colorado Cross Disability Coalition is the only organization in Colorado run by and for people with all kinds of disabilities.  Our mission is to promote full participation for people with all types of disabilities. Cross Disability means that we believe that different disability groups have more in common than not--it does not matter if the disability is physical, mental, cognitive, or if the person is blind or deaf.  We all have to work together to fight for our rights.  We use a variety of strategies to make our mission reality.

1) Grassroots community organizing--this is the heart and soul of the organization.  We have about 15 local affiliate groups throughout the state and if we don't have a group in your area we will help you start one.  Local groups work on issues of local concern and are a part of our statewide efforts to make systems change.  Local groups also receive training and provide information and advocacy to peers in their communities.  We also sponsor issue groups who want to work on issues.

2) Legislative and Regulatory Advocacy:  We have a volunteer lobbying team that spends from January-May at the Capitol.  We monitor the legislative committees that are most important to disability issues; we make sure that the disability voice is heard on bills that will affect our lives.  We try to get better laws passed and stop bad laws from seeing the light of day.  We also work with all of the relevant state agencies and make sure that the disability voice is present on all important boards, commissions and advisory committees.  We offer training and certification to people with disabilities who want to be volunteer lobbyists or who want to represent the disability community on policy issues.  As people who live in many of the controversial systems, like Medicaid, know that we can be instrumental in helping policymakers to fix the system. 

3) Legal Advocacy:  Our legal program works to enforce the American's with Disabilities Act, the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act, the Fair Housing Act and other disability rights laws.  We do impact litigation, class actions and individual cases.  Unfortunately, we cannot take every case because we have only one attorney who is available to focus on this kind of litigation.  We also run a testing and monitoring program to make sure that when we settle a case that the defendant does what they promise.

4) Center for the Rights of Parents with Disabilities:  A new program supported by Equal Justice Works Foundation.  We have one attorney who represents parents who are facing disability discrimination in relation to the ability to be a parent.  This involves custody cases, dependency and neglect allegations and related issues.  In addition to providing individual representation this program provides education to social services agencies, courts and other professionals that work with our populations.

5) Individual Advocacy:  We provide individual advocacy for our members when they are having problems accessing services.  Sometimes this means we help people become eligible for programs like Medicaid, sometimes this means we help people use services once they are eligible for a program.  Sometimes we help people who do not want services keep un-necessary government intrusion off of their backs.  We use mostly volunteer advocates and try to have advocates throughout the state.  We are always available to train new volunteer advocates.

6) Training institute:  We provide intensive training for our members and leaders.  We train people with disabilities to act as certified advocates, prepare them to act as volunteer lobbyists and prepare them to take on other leadership and policy related roles.  We also have more than 25 topics that we can provide training on for other organizations and for professionals who work with people with disabilities. 

7) Special Events:  We hold celebrations of the American's with Disabilities Act Anniversary every July in Denver and Grand Junction .  We also hold celebrations many years in Sterling , La Junta, Rifle and other locations throughout the state.  Every November we hold our access awards where we recognize businesses, elected officials and non-profits who go above and beyond their legal obligations to promote the spirit and intent of the ADA .

8) Youth Program:  We recognize that the youth of today are the movement of tomorrow.  We provide youth an internship opportunity every summer where they can take a class on disability culture, disability rights and learn to be self-advocates.  Students who complete the course receive a stipend.  We also teach classes on advocacy and disability rights at area high schools upon request.  We are adding educational advocacy to our advocacy program to make sure that disabled youth are being properly educated.