People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities experience sexual and domestic violence at drastically higher rates but… despite how many survivors in our movement are in the disability community… they are rarely involved in our work to end violence… or compensated for their contributions when they are. 
Despite immense barriers, self-advocates in the disability community are making huge steps to advocate for disability justice in prevention and advocacy spaces. 
You’re listening to a special 2-part episode of PreventConnect, where we are pulling together some of the most impactful keynotes and interviews to come out of PreventConnect and VALOR around disability justice and inclusion… along with some new interviews about how staff are putting what we’ve learned into practice.


For this installment… I interviewed my colleague and friend, Priscilla Klassen, who leads VALOR's Disability Rights and Inclusion Project, C.A. Leads. Priscilla was also at the forefront of accessibility efforts at the 2024 National Sexual Assault Conference. 


Our conversation delves into systemic barriers to integrating Disability Justice into organizational frameworks, learning through practice and how she approaches Disability Rights and Justice work.


Janae Sargent (she/they) (00:02.222)
Hi Priscilla, I am so excited to have you on the podcast for folks who don't know. Priscilla is a colleague of mine at Valor and Priscilla, I have wanted to get you on this podcast for a very long time. And I finally convinced you, you're here. How are you?


Priscilla Klassen (she/her), VALOR (00:25.407)
Hi, I'm here. I am doing well, thank you. Thanks for having me.


Janae Sargent (she/they) (00:32.846)
You're welcome. So, you know, we're having this kind of broader conversation about disability justice in the movement to end sexual violence, sexual and intimate partner violence. And, you know, for this podcast episode, I'm stringing together kind of like a highlight reel of some of the work that PreventConnect has done, some of the amazing speakers who have come to Valor. And I was thinking, you know, oh, this is all really great, but...


We really strive to highlight people who are doing this, doing the work, not that our speakers aren't. And as I was racking my brain of like, who can I bring onto the podcast? I was like, oh my gosh, Priscilla. So at Valor, you do a few different things, including really steering our work, providing support to survivors with developmental disabilities. And


Valor, the coalition, isn't the first time that you've worked in the disability space. Can you tell me a little bit about your background?


Priscilla Klassen (she/her), VALOR (01:39.711)
Sure, thanks, Janae. Before I came to Valor, Well, I started out doing work in sexual violence in campuses and then volunteering at a rape crisis center. But after that, I worked for about nine years through a company that did a family home agency model, which is a...


living option for folks with intellectual and developmental disabilities that we have here in California. It exists in other states, but California has a really unique system when it comes to service provision for folks with intellectual and developmental disabilities. And the family home agency was kind of a transitional step for a lot of folks. We would find folks in the community who had an extra bedroom in their home and were willing to


have someone with a disability come and live in their home with them and they would provide whatever assistance, care that that individual needed. So sometimes folks would need help with things like toileting and bathing and having their meals prepared for them. And sometimes folks would just need help with like remembering to take their medications on time or paying their bills or getting up on time for their jobs. So I did a number of jobs through that.


company and It really sparked a passion for me of working with folks with disabilities but also through my work there I saw how much sexual violence did happen to people and because of my history with the sexual violence, anti -sexual violence movement in campuses I was super excited to come to Valor and kind of merge those two worlds.


Janae Sargent (she/they) (03:25.23)
Thank you for sharing. We're so lucky to have your expertise here, truly. What has your work at Valor looked like, especially within intellectual and developmental disability spaces?


Priscilla Klassen (she/her), VALOR (03:43.391)
So we are currently working on a project called the CALEADS project, which is California Advocates Leading in Engagement, Accessibility, and Developmental Disability Services. And we are, let's see, I think we just finished our fourth year. It's a grant through OVW and the grant is to...


supports and services for survivors with disabilities. And our project specifically focuses on sexual violence and the community that we focus on is folks with intellectual and developmental disabilities. And so through that project, the first three years were really a partnership and collaboration phase where we partnered with an organization and our partnership was with the Arc of California, which is...


the public policy arm of the ARC, which is a service provider. And so we partnered with the ARC to really do a deep dive into our organizational practices and their organizational practices and find out, you know, what it is that we can do to make sure that our service providers are making these connections with each other, that we can make sure that...


Disability service providers are trained and aware of how to provide trauma -informed care and trauma -informed support when people are disclosing. And that rape crisis centers are really aware of what they need to do to not only reach disabled community members, but to make sure that when they do make those connections, they're providing adequate support and aware of what, you know,


what additional provisions they may need to take. And that was like the first phase of our project, kind of making sure that we're making these connections and doing these trainings. And then in the continuing phases, we're just trying to figure out like how to expand that project and make sure that in our state of California, that this is an area that we're focusing on from both sides and, you know.


Priscilla Klassen (she/her), VALOR (06:03.711)
coming together to help remedy.


Janae Sargent (she/they) (06:11.342)
Thank you so much for sharing. And that, the CA LEADS project, is this kind of the first time that Valor as a coalition has really taken on providing support to survivors with developmental disabilities in such a full way.


Priscilla Klassen (she/her), VALOR (06:30.431)
Um, yes and no. I mean, I would say that there have been a number of times that Valor has done things to make sure that they're, they're considering the disabled community members and that they're trying to improve supports and services for them. But I think this is the first time that we've had like an official partnership collaboration where we're devoting so much of our time and our resources to making sure that.


Janae Sargent (she/they) (06:58.414)
Thanks.


Priscilla Klassen (she/her), VALOR (06:59.167)
we are really considering the needs of this community and going into the community to make sure that we're hearing firsthand what people need, what people want, and how we can incorporate that into our work.


Janae Sargent (she/they) (07:16.91)
Hmm, thank you for sharing. I want to dig in what you said, partnership and collaboration and learning from people firsthand. I know a big part of your job is working with self advocates. So for folks who are listening and are new to the terminology, self advocates are folks who have intellectual and developmental disabilities and advocate for themselves and their community.


And obviously that's so important because we can't create inclusive and equitable spaces for communities who are not at the table. And I think we can just say that the anti -sexual violence movement has not historically been great at that. How have you seen and made space in your project, what has shifted, what has had to shift to bring...


the communities that we're talking about to the table and work alongside them? to work with self advocates.


Priscilla Klassen (she/her), VALOR (08:20.927)
Yeah, so that's an interesting question, Janae It's been a process. When this project started, I came on in a project director role and kind of took over the day -to -day maintenance of it because all of the other project members were in leadership positions, right? And so they were super busy, super focused on a million other things. And the day -to -day stuff was kind of getting...


wasn't at the top of our focus. And so when I came in, it was difficult for me because we didn't have any voices of disabled folks that were part of our leadership. So it's really been a process in this project to make sure that we're including folks in a way that is thoughtful and considerate, but also we don't want to tokenize people.


So we've been able to pull folks in in terms of focus groups initially and then paying people for their work when they're able to contribute to our trainings. But just recently we've been able to hire someone. So it's really exciting for me because yes, yes. So yeah, and it's someone that we've been working on with the project throughout.


Janae Sargent (she/they) (09:44.43)
Amazing!


Priscilla Klassen (she/her), VALOR (09:50.527)
throughout all of the phases of it and who has been really involved but was not, and we considered this person a member of our group and we paid them for their time, but they weren't on the project as much as the rest of us or didn't have the official capacity that they were in the project. So it's been difficult because there are only so many jobs, so many positions and...


you know, making sure that we're using our resources wisely so that we can pull in those voices that we don't have and make sure that we're paying them for their time, which is something that I'm really passionate about, making sure we're not just like expecting community members to volunteer their expertise, but that we're creating space for folks because we need them.


Janae Sargent (she/they) (10:42.477)
Absolutely. And you talked about that a little bit earlier. I'm thinking about when you use the term tokenizing. I was just going back on an old PreventConnect web conference and someone was sharing about, you know, when we create fake space at the table for folks who come from marginalized communities, but don't change the way that we are doing anything. We're just inviting someone to get harmed and then patting ourselves on the back in the process.


And there's so much about capitalism and ableism and kind of professional working culture that directly works against that. And that's something that I'm hearing in all of these pieces that I'm going through and pulling for this podcast. You know, I was talking to Sierra Olivia Thomas Williams from the Indiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence. That's another voice that we're going to hear from in this podcast about the ways that ableism manifests.


into perfectionism and professionalism and how that kind of holds us back from embodying disability justice and both intentionally and unintentionally gate keeps our movement from folks in the disability community. What have you learned from your work in this project and in previous projects about the things that our movement and workplaces can do differently?


to create space for the disability community.


Priscilla Klassen (she/her), VALOR (12:14.719)
That's such a loaded question. First off, I'm a huge fan. I'm a huge fan of Cierra, Cierra Olivia. So I'm super excited that I'm going to be on the same podcast. But being on the podcast in general is a thing that like I have not been super excited about, right? Because of that expected perfectionism, right? That like, I don't want to be here because what if I say the wrong thing? What if I do the wrong thing? I can't undo that. But something that I always ask people,


Janae Sargent (she/they) (12:16.238)
I know.


Priscilla Klassen (she/her), VALOR (12:43.455)
for when they come into a space with me when I'm doing like a training or something is that we're all here to learn and grow, right? That's our expectation is that we're coming into this space knowing that we don't know everything. And that even as the leaders of the training, there are people here who know more about it than us. So we don't come into a space expecting that we're the experts in everything and no one else has something that they can offer, right? And so if we're gonna ask people to be vulnerable in these ways,


Janae Sargent (she/they) (13:10.174)
Thank you.


Priscilla Klassen (she/her), VALOR (13:13.343)
Like we have to be vulnerable in these ways too. We have to be willing to admit when we're wrong, willing to admit that, you know, there's always more we can learn and willing to like make mistakes, right? That's how we learn and grow. And so that's something that I struggle with too, obviously by not wanting to be here. Not that I don't want to be here right now, but you know, in having...


Janae Sargent (she/they) (13:27.244)
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.


Janae Sargent (she/they) (13:35.662)
What? I understand.


Priscilla Klassen (she/her), VALOR (13:40.537)
struggling with not wanting to be on a podcast in the past. But also, you know, like that sense of we go to school to get an education, we go to school to learn and grow and advance ourselves. And that makes spaces more inaccessible for people. Right. So in terms of gatekeeping, like we learn this language, this academic language that


makes us only able to talk to each other, right? And so you go into these spaces and you want to sound quote professional. So you have to use these words and these terms to make yourself sound a certain way. But that just makes you inaccessible to other people, right? So it's an internal form of gatekeeping that is expected, right? That we push on each other, that you have to sound this way or else you don't belong here.


But then what we're doing is we're making that space inaccessible for people who want to learn. Right. We're saying you don't belong here. You don't understand what we're saying. So you need to leave. And when we're learning about disability, we have to think about people who have different ways of learning, but also folks with intellectual disabilities. Right. So wanting to use plain language, wanting to use.


Janae Sargent (she/they) (14:45.548)
Thank you.


Janae Sargent (she/they) (14:51.574)
Mm -hmm.


Priscilla Klassen (she/her), VALOR (15:05.925)
sentence structures that people will understand, wanting to use terminology that people understand, words that they understand. So those are all ways that I notice within myself having this struggle of like going back and forth between spaces and trying to make sure that the words that I'm using and the way that I'm talking is a way that most people can understand, right? And that...


the things that I say are going to be open to a wide variety of people and not just this one small group who is our ideal person of who we're talking to, right? Because then we're only going to get that person's voice back.


Janae Sargent (she/they) (15:52.846)
Yeah. And then we wonder why we feel like we're just shouting into an echo chamber. As you were sharing that I was thinking back to like so many moments that I have had in prevention and doing the podcast. We say all the time in prevention, you know, we have to use plain language, we have to move away from public health speak. But then we also really lean into that public health speak and


I was talking to Leah who hosts a different Valor podcast, Valor Conversations, about our language and storytelling. And she said something really interesting to me. She said, you know, well, we do that because our movement had to professionalize to be taken seriously.


And then we leaned super hard into it, you know, we went from grassroots beginnings. And then we became professionalized and super white and really rot with ableism. And then we kind of can we over can we conformed we really did because we were like, we need people to take us seriously. And now we're like, oh, we're not reaching communities again. And it's really hard to shift that back because


So much of it is in complete contrast to how you would think that you would like show up at work. You know, I am the first time that someone really challenged me to be vulnerable in a professional space, especially because I had a different career before I came to the anti -violence space. And it was very much not a vulnerable thing. I was like, what do you mean?


What do you know? I have this wall up and it keeps me safe. But what keeps me safe as a white woman also keeps other people out and keeps me from doing the important work. And that's really where I have seen disability justice come in. And I'm still really new to I really knew I feel like to learning about disability justice. But Lydia XZ Brown described it I think is


Janae Sargent (she/they) (18:12.462)
the thing that can undo all of these oppressive systems, like disability justice is the intersecting force that can challenge ableism and oppression and white supremacy. And I think a lot of people when they think like use plain language, they're not thinking about it from a disability justice lens. I think that that's really helpful. We're like, I think in this movement,


If you think that you're doing work with the disability community, you need to have a specific grant. But what I'm hearing from you is that it's awesome that we have a project, but also disability justice should be woven into everything.


Priscilla Klassen (she/her), VALOR (18:58.015)
Yeah, and there are so many easy ways that you can incorporate it into your work just by having that framework in mind, right? Like, yes, it's helpful to have additional money so that you can spend time doing things like, you know, adding captions or having ASL interpreters on web conferences. Those things are really important.


but they cost a lot of money. But there are things like plain language where like you can just be aware of how you're speaking, right? And try to make a concerted effort to speaking in ways that most people can understand. Like those things are really easy to incorporate.


Janae Sargent (she/they) (19:41.55)
I'm actually thinking about our last Valor staff meeting and I think we did that. I think our colleague Grace asked us, what things are you doing that are not attached to a dollar to make what you're putting out there more accessible? And I know we just talked about the things that are not attached to a dollar sign and dollar signs are also important because we need to be prioritizing accessibility.


And that kind of brings me to the National Sexual Assault Conference that we had this year. So huge in -person conference happened in San Francisco. And Priscilla, you were like the person working behind the scenes to make sure that that conference was as accessible as possible. And I know that that was not an easy task.


What did that look like for you?


Priscilla Klassen (she/her), VALOR (20:44.127)
So I was the internal person. We did have external people, a lot of external people that were working. And as well, Grace, our policy manager, was doing an amazing job. Grace and I worked together to create an accessible map for the location because the hotel and conference center that we used was built in different phases. And it was not built with accessibility in mind. So there were like...


half floors where, oh, you need to go up six stairs to get to this next level, but there's no ramp. So you need to go down one elevator to the lobby, across the lobby to another elevator, then up that elevator to get just up these five steps. So there were nightmares like that all over this hotel. And we worked together to create a map that would say, hey, if you're in this spot, here's how you get to this spot. If you're in this spot, here's how you get here. And it...


really simplified the process for anyone who couldn't use stairs for how to get from one place to another. But in addition to that, we did have a large number of deaf participants at NSAC this year. And it took a lot of planning, a lot of forethought, and a lot of time and consideration.


We were lucky enough that we were able to hire an ASL coordinator who knows the community and knows all these things that I do not know. Right? I can be there to help and to, you know, do what I can do, but that is not my world of expertise. So knowing that we don't have anyone internal who has this knowledge, who has this expertise, who knows how to make an event accessible for deaf folks.


So we were lucky enough that we were able to hire someone who was amazing to do this work with us. And they put in so much time and energy towards this project to make sure that the folks who participated didn't feel like they were being excluded from anything. They were able to.


Priscilla Klassen (she/her), VALOR (23:03.123)
help us hire deaf interpreters as well so that in addition to having the language access, there was also cultural access for folks that like at our live plenaries on stage, every interpreter was a deaf interpreter. So they were someone on the stage who was deaf who would be interpreting from a hearing interpreter that was in the audience. So that.


they could not only provide the language, but the culture as well. They could sign to the deaf participants in the audience in a way that was culturally accurate. And that was something that, you know, being outside of that community, I don't have any knowledge of. It's something that I learned going throughout the process. And, you know, we even had trilingual interpreters, so folks who were able to help us go from Spanish to ASL.


because our executive director, Sandra, she goes in and out of English and Spanish, right? But if that's something you don't realize is going to happen and you're not a Spanish speaking interpreter, that's a really difficult thing to navigate, right? If you don't speak Spanish, how do you translate that into ASL? So we were lucky enough that we had a really amazing team of interpreters and that our coordinator was able to pull together.


as many resources as we had and really call on her relationships in the community to make sure that NSAC was a place that was accessible for people, but there are things that we did wrong, right? As we're learning and growing, we acknowledge that there were things that didn't go well or places that we can improve. One of the things that we did this year was we had


an interpretation team for every participant rather than having an interpretation team for every session. So that way the interpretation team that was working with that person could follow them throughout the conference. And each day that they were assigned to someone, they would follow them. So if they wanted to leave a session, they could leave it any time that they wanted to. And they would still have access to language.


Priscilla Klassen (she/her), VALOR (25:24.191)
because they'd have the interpreter following them from session to session. They met up with someone in the hallway when they were going from session. They'd still have someone to help with them. If they were, you know, at lunch, they would have someone to help with them. So that was a really great thing for some people. But then when we think about it in terms of intersectionality, there would be people interpreting for, you know, queer people of color.


we'd have straight white women who are interpreting for queer people of color. And it's like, that's not ideal, right? You know, we want to try and like match someone's identity when we can. So that way we have a fuller picture of the experience. But because we chose to do it this way, this other way, you know, we kind of made a misstep. So there are things that...


Janae Sargent (she/they) (25:55.766)
You should.


Priscilla Klassen (she/her), VALOR (26:21.137)
you know, we learned this year that we're going to implement for next year that we've kind of been able to figure out, but it is a huge process. It did need a lot of time and consideration and funding. But we were happy with how it went this year and excited in the lessons that we learned and really excited that the participants were willing to share their experiences with us, which was another thing we were able to do,


Janae Sargent (she/they) (26:38.382)
Thanks.


Janae Sargent (she/they) (26:41.774)
Mm.


Priscilla Klassen (she/her), VALOR (26:49.343)
is go back and ask folks like, what worked? What didn't work? What do you want to see next time? How can we do this better? So it was really exciting to be a part of. And I'm really proud that I got to play a small part in it and learn as much as I did.


Janae Sargent (she/they) (27:07.662)
Yeah. Oh, there are so many things there. I feel like we could have a whole other podcast just talking about everything that happened at NSAC. You know, I think two main things that I really want to focus in on the first, of course, there were mistakes made and learning lessons and things that you know, you're going to bring into the future.


I think where I hear disability justice woven through that is that accessibility was not an afterthought. So while there were learning lessons around like we could do this better, we can put together our teams better this way, I have been to events and even been a part of planning events where the event is catered to a white able -bodied person.


And then everyone else is an afterthought, you know, and then it's like, well, so then you feel that if you are a part of a marginalized community, you're like, this space is not for me. And what it sounds like what you all did with the National Sexual Assault Conference was really think about people first and experience first. And you brought in partners from the communities that you were working to meet, and they were a part of that.


And it seemed like a commitment all the way through. And I think that's what feels like the fundamental shift and kind of what we're talking about, about like leading with vulnerability and personhood. I also want to, you know, I'm thinking about my experience at NSAC and I am someone who is not deaf and...


I also really benefited from everything that you did. It's funny, you talked about the maps. And I remember partway through NSAC, because we were giving those out because the hotel was hard to navigate anyways. And I was giving those maps out and talking people through them and using them myself. And I think you and I talked, you said, oh, Janae, those aren't the maps. That's not like there are easier ways for people to get around if they don't have to use an elevator. And I was like,


Janae Sargent (she/they) (29:26.318)
I still feel like the directions are really easy for me. Like this is helpful. I'm gonna keep using that. And the experience of how seamlessly interpreters like went up on stage and kind of what you were saying of like someone in the community and then a hearing person in the audience and seeing people moving in teams, it felt different. It changed the energy. And I imagine that some people might be listening to this and thinking,


Well, I don't have, you know, $100 ,000 to drop on interpretation. So therefore I can't do it at all. What would you say to those folks? What are, what's kind of the fundamental piece that people can grab onto before they even get to the challenges of money and capacity and stuff like that.


Priscilla Klassen (she/her), VALOR (30:17.631)
I want to come back to that question, but it's funny because you were talking about the maps and it made me think of something about how it's so rare that we're put in spaces where we're uncomfortable in those kinds of ways of like, you know, being someone who has full access to so many spaces, right? But then being


Janae Sargent (she/they) (30:31.724)
Mm.


Priscilla Klassen (she/her), VALOR (30:42.079)
being told by you, right? Hey, here's how you get from this place to this place. And like, no, that's not the easiest route, right? But having those folks see what it is like to get around a hotel if you cannot use stairs, right? You're telling someone, okay, you have to go down this hall, down that elevator, go across the lobby to this other elevator, then go back up to this floor and then all the way down that hall, right? And so...


most people were probably like, oh my gosh, this is ridiculous. But hey, voila, you're welcome to the world of disability. Things are not easy, right? And we were actually really lucky in that we were able to have deaf presenters at NSAC as well. And so we had two folks from Activating Change, Esther Fass and Deanna Swope, who did a session in ASL.


Janae Sargent (she/they) (31:12.942)
Mm -hmm. Yep.


Janae Sargent (she/they) (31:18.318)
Mmm.


Priscilla Klassen (she/her), VALOR (31:38.527)
and we had interpreters voice for them. But at the beginning of their session, they did this really cool thing where they only used ASL. Everybody in the audience was a hearing person who did not know ASL because the subject of the session was how to, I think it was like how to incorporate access for deaf folks. So it was something like that.


Janae Sargent (she/they) (31:47.564)
Mmmmm


Janae Sargent (she/they) (31:53.838)
Mm -hmm.


Priscilla Klassen (she/her), VALOR (32:08.191)
And so everybody in the session panicked like, oh my gosh, I shouldn't be here. I'm in the wrong place. I don't know what I'm doing. I don't understand what these folks are saying. Right. And then after a few beats, they had the interpreter start voicing for them. And so then they were able to make that connection in the space that, oh, this is what it's like as a deaf person going into a space where there is no access.


Janae Sargent (she/they) (32:23.823)
Mm -hmm.


Mm -hmm.


Janae Sargent (she/they) (32:37.216)
Mm -hmm.


Priscilla Klassen (she/her), VALOR (32:37.407)
Right? You get that moment of, oh my gosh, I'm not supposed to be here. I don't belong here. This hasn't been planned with me in mind. What do I do? Right? So just those little ways at NSAC that we were able to like create some aha moments for people I think is really important. And you talking about the maps is what circled me back to that session that I thought was really cool. So I just wanted to mention that.


Janae Sargent (she/they) (32:46.348)
I'm sorry.


Janae Sargent (she/they) (33:06.126)
Well, that's kind of the whole point of privilege, right? Is that like the vast majority of your life, you walk through the world not realizing that you have privilege because that's your measure. And you know, when people get a little sensitive when their privilege gets pointed out, it's like, well, this is how life is, you know, you have to be you have to be able to


sit in discomfort because other people have been uncomfortable their whole lives. So we as privileged folks can be uncomfortable a little bit, like it's time.


Priscilla Klassen (she/her), VALOR (33:41.503)
Yeah, for sure. But going back to your question about incorporating like no cost into our work, right? I mean, this isn't a no cost way by any means, but hiring people with disabilities, right? Like there's so many things that we do internally.


Janae Sargent (she/they) (34:03.286)
Mm -hmm.


Priscilla Klassen (she/her), VALOR (34:08.383)
that make our work inaccessible that we're not aware of. And I think one of the best ways of making sure that our work is accessible is having people with disabilities lead that work. So making sure that when you are hiring, you're making a concerted effort to reach out to spaces where you can hire folks with disabilities. Having a, having a,


note in your hiring practices that like this is something we encourage, this is something we want in our work, I think is important. I think making...


Janae Sargent (she/they) (34:46.862)
And then once people get, sorry, I just want to add, I think, and then just like, yes, hire folks with disabilities and also don't harm them when they come into this work. We see that with people with disabilities. We see that with black and brown women. We see that with trans women. We see that with queer folks that we're like, come on in. And then less than a year later, they're gone.


Priscilla Klassen (she/her), VALOR (34:52.255)
No, go.


Janae Sargent (she/they) (35:15.79)
and they're burnt out because we have harmed them. So like take those steps too, which, you know, they cost time, they cost commitment. I think that's kind of the main thing is that it's like, it's a commitment. You don't need, and you won't always have a grant to back it up as awesome as grants are. Eventually the grant is gonna end of shifting disability justice from like a project to a value.


Priscilla Klassen (she/her), VALOR (35:17.247)
Right?


Priscilla Klassen (she/her), VALOR (35:46.559)
Yeah, yeah, and I mean, like we were talking about earlier with tokenism, like you don't want to hire folks to say like, look, we have a disabled person here now, like we're doing equity. But like, yes, do hire them, but listen to them and implement the things that they're saying and don't just like, yes, yes, thank you for that. Give them a nod and move along. Like actually implement the things that...


are recommended by people to do the change that needs to be done instead of, you know, just checking that box.


Priscilla Klassen (she/her), VALOR (36:23.103)
Yeah.


Janae Sargent (she/they) (36:26.542)
Well...


Priscilla, I don't know, I'm already feeling like I've learned so much from you, even though I knew a lot of this stuff about you and your work before. Maybe just kind of want to wrap this conversation up with, for folks who are hearing this and are feeling really inspired to learn more about disability justice, to take stock of if they're...


organizations are in a place to work with survivors with disabilities, to hire folks with disabilities, what are some steps that they can take to kind of start that work?


Priscilla Klassen (she/her), VALOR (37:11.615)
Um, actually there is an organization called sins invalid. Um, and their website is sins invalid .org and they're the originators of the, they are the ones who coined the term disability justice and they have an audit tool. So I definitely recommend reaching out to sins and valid, checking out this audit tool, um, going through your organization and seeing if this is something that you can. Implement.


and really take the time and the energy to go through and figure out where you are, where you want to be, what you can do, and trying to make sure that you're not just doing it in one area, right? That you're spreading that knowledge among your whole organization. And that's something that I think that Valor, that we really do internally.


Janae Sargent (she/they) (38:00.3)
Hmm.


Priscilla Klassen (she/her), VALOR (38:10.207)
as well, like we make sure that we do staff meetings to update everyone on what everyone is working on. And we try to make sure that that knowledge is not just kept in one project and one piece, but that we're sharing it throughout our organization so that everybody can implement all the ways that, you know, we try to be.


Janae Sargent (she/they) (38:24.512)
Mm -hmm.


Janae Sargent (she/they) (38:33.198)
Mm hmm. Yeah, I hear that. And this, I think what you said that like, we're all at different points in our learning journeys. And that's okay. I think so much of this can feel really intimidating. I'm just gonna I'll just share, you know, I am currently putting together a podcast about disability justice. Am I an expert? Absolutely not. That staff meeting that I shared about, you know, like two weeks ago was the first time I


ever learned that Google Slides had a checker to see how accessible your presentations were. And then when I ran that checker on the presentations that PreventConnect had been doing, oof, woof, I didn't have like image descriptions for anything. And there were so many things that I didn't do that I didn't even know that I could do. But again, it's it's that commitment. It's the value you build the skill.


you hold the value. And I can see that obviously that's a huge value that you have and I'm honored to work with you and I really appreciate you. If someone wanted to learn more about the CA LEADS project or anything that you do, where could they go?


Priscilla Klassen (she/her), VALOR (39:48.809)
They can go to the Valor website. We have a number of trainings and a number of materials that we've created for not only rape crisis centers, but for disability serving agencies as well. And then also, Activating Change is a really good organization to look into. It's who we work with on this grant. They're our technical assistance provider, and so they're a place that they take all of...


all of the things that are created from different grantees in the OVW disability grant and they collect all those things and they put them on one website called endabusepwd .org, end abuse against people with disabilities. And so anything that anyone has created is on there. There's...


Janae Sargent (she/they) (40:32.142)
Thanks.


Priscilla Klassen (she/her), VALOR (40:44.415)
plain language and picture guides to SART or SANE exams. So if you have a person with a disability that's like struggling with what that process is going to look like, you can download that guide and share it with them. It's something you can have handy in your SANE exam rooms. They have one of the things that we've created is a plain language guide to mandated reporting. So that discusses it plain language.


Janae Sargent (she/they) (40:49.518)
you


Priscilla Klassen (she/her), VALOR (41:12.487)
mandated reporting is, who it applies to, what it means, what it might look like. There's all kinds of resources on this website that you can look for, and I recommend it super highly.


Janae Sargent (she/they) (41:26.766)
Awesome. Thank you so much Priscilla. I so deeply appreciate your time. We've all learned a lot. I can't believe you were nervous to be on this podcast because this has been so great. And I just really appreciate you.


Priscilla Klassen (she/her), VALOR (41:41.937)
Thank you, Janae. It's been super fun to chat with you. And like I said, I'm excited to be on a podcast with Cierra Olivia. So you as well. But.


Janae Sargent (she/they) (41:50.668)
Imagine how I feel. I just meet cool people all the time. Hey, you know me, but I'm excited to be on a podcast with all of you. And I'm gonna stop the recording now.