OUR 2022 YEAR IN REVIEW

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT! 

With each gift of time, talent, and treasure this year; the love and support gifted to disABILITYsa enabled a continued impact on the San Antonio community through connection, advancement, and strengthening:
  • Our team grew!  We were pleased to provide better programs and services with the addition of a Program Director (Lisa Santoyo), Admin Support Specialist (Janice Perez), Vax-abilitySTRONG Program Support (Annette Paulin), and Development Director (Sheila Black) during the year.  Learn more about our current team here.
  • Executive Director was selected as part of the Leadership San Antonio Class 46 and the Social Venture Partners of San Antonio Leadership Fellows program further strengthening our connections in the San Antonio community and developing the leadership skills necessary to effectively advance disABILITYsa into the future.
  • We're Back! We were able to re-established a number of our annual programs:
    • Fiesta Especial Celebration Day was back after a 2-year hiatus attracting 49 schools, 1031 youth with disabilities, and 267 adults with disabilities, engaging a total of 1,946 people in the biggest celebration of our city's heritage, culture, and diversity.
    • The 16th annual AccessAbility fest featured over 100 exhibitors with resources, games, show-stopping activities, and fun for the whole family.  We were thrilled to partner with Hemisfair to bring in an accessible climbing wall, caricatures, and our entertainment supports. It was well attended making an impact on over 700 people in the San Antonio and surrounding communities.
  • Our Fiesta Especial Royal Court program grew to include 13 participants for the 2022-2023 Leadership & Life skills development program.  Together, they raised $36,485.76 to support programs and services for children, youth, and adults with disabilities in the San Antonio community through their campaigns.
  • After 1.5 years of conversations and awareness building around the need to collect data on the intersectionality of the disability community, on February 17th, 2022; the City Council for San Antonio voted to include the disability demographic question on not only our city's boards & commissions application, but on every City survey moving forward. (Supporting Article)
  • Our one-year Vax-abilitySTRONG program resulted in 554 vaccination referrals, 21 directly coordinated or supported vaccination sites, 68 outreach events, 4 community conversations, 629,838 people reached in-person and virtually through educational campaigns and information shares. 
  • The Sensory Escape Room was deployed 17 times this years to include venues like Fiesta Fiesta, Epilepsy Walk, 10 disability-friendly vaccine clinics, Celebration Day, AccessAbility fest, along with a few others.
  • Partnered with Hemisfair to bring back its Inclusion Programming after it's two year hiatus. Supported with program management during a time of staff shortages making it possible to bring back a free, all-embracing event.
  • Navigation services grew like wildfire, providing connections for more than100 people to the disability resources available in our local community with an 89% success rate. 
  • We supported the San Antonio Housing Trust in identifying individuals with lived experience to offer insight and feedback on their newly developed Sustainability and Universal Design Committee (Supporting Article)
  • Served as a panelist for The Neighbor Helping Neighbor Forum, (Supporting Article)
  • Closing out the year, we were honored to assist the Classic Theater in making a more disability-friendly stage environment for a local actor who is a wheelchair user in the production of "A Christmas Carol", A One-man Play Adapted by Greg Oliver Bodine. (Supporting Article)
  • Helped inform news stories around issues impacting people with disabilities in San Antonio: 
  • Informed conversations advancing the considerations of people with disabilities in San Antonio with active participation on the following committees: 
    • Collective Impact Initiatives:
      • ​ALL (Autism Lifeline Links) Collective, Public Policy & Advocacy Workgroup (2016 – Present)
      • March of Dimes maternal and child health collective impact: Access to Integrated, Respectful, High Quality Care Workgroup (10/2021- Present)
      • Successfully Aging and Living in San Antonio, Transportation & Housing Workgroups (2019 – Present)
    • Actively Serving:
      • ​City of San Antonio Disability Access Advisory Committee, District 7 Appointee (2017 – Present)
      • Bexar County Technical Advisory Committee for Persons with Disabilities, Appointee (2017 – Present)
      • San Antonio Hazard Mitigation Action Plan Enhancement Planning Team (03/2022-Present)
      • Active Transportation Advisory (ATAC) Committee Member (02/2022-Present)
      • COSA Housing Commission Community Removing Barriers Committee Appointee (10/2021 – Present)
      • COSA Housing Commission Community Engagement & Outreach Committee Appointee (09/2021 – Present)
      • SA Digital Connects Advisory Committee, Member (08/2021-Present)
      • City of San Antonio Vaccine Implementation Committee (2020-Present)
      • Texas A&M University San Antonio College of Education and Human Development College Advisory Council (2020-Present)
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