Andrea van Vugt is the president of Disability Pride Alberta Foundation. In this episode, she shares her story that started with a painting and ended in the creation of Disability Pride, an organization with the mission “to celebrate and empower the disability community. Sharing stories and hosting community events provides an opportunity for people with & without disabilities to celebrate diversity, inclusion and pride.” Also in this episode, Andrea talks about her big question of “How can we, as an organization, connect the disability communities throughout the year?”

Tempered Temporal Lobe. Andrea painted this image of her brain (you’ll hear us talk about it during the episode!)

Quotes Shared At The Beginning Of The Episode From Al Etmanski’s Book Impact:

• Humans ingenuity and creativity in the face of adversity defines us as a species. Social innovation spreads through sharing, not selfishness. It is only through generous respectful interactions across sectors, expertise, and roles, that innovation achieves lasting impact.
• A movement is composed of a million small acts. Movements provide a vehicle for collaborating and cooperating across sectors, organizational, social, and economic strata, origins, backgrounds and jurisdiction.

More Information:

• You can read Andrea’s story on the Disability Pride website: http://disabilitypridealberta.com/2020/05/19/disability-story-marginal/
• Find more information on Disability Pride: http://disabilitypridealberta.com/
• Read more stories on the Disability Pride website at: http://disabilitypridealberta.com/disabilitystories/

This episode was produced by Alberta Social Innovation Connect. You can learn more about our network, find our newsletter, get inspired by and connected to other Albertan changemakers by visiting our website: www.absiconnect.ca. We’d also love to feature your big question on a future episode! Find us at absiconnect.ca/get-involved for more information on how to be a guest.

Thank you to the students of The Virtual School Project for the land acknowledgments. For more information on the Virtual School Project you can contact Julia Dalman at julia.dalman@epsb.ca.

We’d like to thank our funding partner the Suncor Energy Foundation, producer and editor Elise Martinoski of ABSI Connect, and theme music creator Eily Aurora.