Kimberly talks with Amanda Mobley, Executive Director of the Center For Accessible Living, about the 2nd Annual Advocacy Summit coming up on October 16–17. They also discuss exciting new things happening at CAL. Plus, Kimberly and Sam play tourism trivia. Spoiler alert, Kimberly loses.

Register here for the 2nd Annual Advocacy Summit

Thanks to Chris Ankin for use of his song, “Change.”

The book "A Celebration of Family: Stories of Parents with Disabilities." is available from Amazon here.

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Demand and Disrupt is sponsored by the Advocado Press and the Center For Accessible Living.

You can find the transcript in the show notes below when they become available.

Transcript

You're listening to Demand and Disrupt, the podcast for information about accessibility, advocacy, and all things disability.

Welcome to Demand and Disrupt, a disability podcast.

I'm your host, Kimberly Parsley.

And I'm your host, Sam Moore sitting here.

I've got a hot cup of black coffee to my direct left.

And you've got a a cup of black tea.

I know, Kimberly, but you're not real.

You're not super happy about it being black tea, are you?

I am not, I cannot find.

I like tea with cream in it and I cannot find the cream in the refrigerator.

And so now it actually, Michael hates tea and he calls it, uh, there's an episode of Ted lasso where they refer to tea as tree juice, as a tree juice.

Yep.

And, uh, also pigeon sweat.

They call it that.

So I can maybe go with the tree juice.

So for any of y'all, if any of y'all have some cream that you don't need, you know where to send it.

Oh, the thing is it's in that refrigerator somewhere, Sam.

It's just, I can't find it.

And it's cold in there looking around for cream.

I just, I know it's in there.

I just can't find it.

Don't you have to, while your hands get cold and you just need to warm up.

It's, it's just, it's just a blind problem.

You know, it's, uh, I've been there, done that today on the show.

I have Amanda Mobley.

She is the director of the center for accessible living.

And she is going to tell us all about the upcoming, the second annual advocacy summit sponsored by Cal, and it is going to be in Louisville on October 16th and 17th, and I am going, and I am super excited.

Uh, I'm going to go, I'm going to go.

I'm going to go learn how to advocate and do it better and be awesome at it.

That's what I'm going to do.

I'm going to learn.

You know what?

I may take my, uh, my recorder and you never know what's going to happen.

I may interview some people for the show.

You just never do know.

It's good to go.

And then we can play highlights here on the, on demand and disrupt.

We just might.

So y'all all should, uh, all should, should go to that.

So I'm gonna talk to her about that.

And you know, I don't, I don't go to Louisville much, Sam.

I, here in Bowling Green, we're closer to Nashville.

I don't go to Louisville much at all, except for work stuff.

And you know, I think I know why.

You think you know why?

I think I do.

When I was young and they found the disease that I have, which of course started in my retina, they sent me to Louisville.

So he was like all the time, every two, three months, every Easter break, every Christmas break, summer vacation.

I was always going to Louisville for surgery.

And I think when I became an adult, I just decided I was done with Louisville.

You were, you were burned out on it.

I just was.

It had, it had some bad, bad experiences there, but I think I haven't been fair.

Do you, so I'm excited to go back to Louisville.

Tell me, do you know much about Louisville?

You know, I actually, I would like to think that I do Louisville, Louisville has really grown on me over the years.

In fact, if I, you know, if I had to move outside of my current locale of Henderson, you know, my, a lot of times I'll say it would almost be a, a three-way tie among my top choices, Louisville, Lexington and Bowling Green, because I, I have a, a soft spot in my heart for all of those places, Bowling Green, because I went to college there, Lexington, because mom and dad went to college there and we made quite a few trips there growing up and then Louisville, because I have quite a few second, third, fourth cousins there.

My, my ocularist who used to polish my prosthesis used to be in Louisville.

So we had to go there twice a year to see him.

And of course, you know, I did the short courses at Kentucky School for the Blind there a few times a year when I was in school.

And so, so yeah, it's a, it's a, it's a great place.

Of course I could plug restaurants there all day long, but then people would be like, Sam, do you do anything else but eat?

You know what, there are people who make their whole online presence about restaurants.

Everybody loves to talk about food.

It's like the weather.

You can't go wrong talking about food.

You know, yeah, I'm telling you that's, that, that brings people together even when they're like total opposites on other things.

But anyway, we'll give a few free plugs here.

Um, for those of you that love burgers and who doesn't love burgers, right?

Kimberly, I mean, who doesn't love, WW Cousins is a Louisville institution.

Is it?

I've even had them on my podcast before talking about their burgers.

And you know, they've got, you know, any kind of topping known to man.

And, um, you know, you can dress it however you want to.

They've got, uh, bacon, of course, uh, chili.

You can pair with it, which is above average chili.

And if that weren't enough, Kimberly, they even have a bakery inside.

Oh, so you can get your cookies and you can get your brownies.

Oh, that's awesome.

Now, what's this place called again?

It's a WW Cousins.

Oh, and it's a, just a single location there in Louisville.

Yeah, they used to have more than one, but I think it's just, uh, the original location is, is the only one that's open now, but, uh, but it's been there for decades and you just, you just can't go wrong with, uh, with cousins.

And then, uh, my ocularis told me about, um, a place called beer nose, beer nose pizza, you know, that could be, that name could easily be misinterpreted.

It could.

It's so many ways.

Yeah.

But anyway, uh, beer nose has, uh, you know, won awards for best pizza in Louisville several times and, and we can understand why, because, uh, after having gone there a number of the times we've, uh, been in Louisville over the years, it is definitely, uh, uh, a good pizza and it's top heavy, you know, you can get a sausage pepperoni and even though that sounds pretty basic and it is, they load you up with sausage and pepperoni.

There's, there were times when me and mom and dad struggled to finish a large, even with three of us working on it.

So, uh, you know, those are two places, cousins and beer nose, Kimberly, that you need to hit up while you're in Louisville for that advocacy.

I, I'm, you know, and I do love a Kentucky hot Brown.

Oh, hot Brown.

Yes.

Yeah.

I do.

Yeah.

The, uh, the Brown hotel, I'm pretty sure it's where that originated.

That's where it originated.

Now you can get it more places, but I don't know if, if it's, uh, I guess authentically and it has to be in Louisville.

I don't, I don't know.

Um, they probably tell you they have the best ones.

They might, and, and, uh, you know, um, people say like a Derby pie.

I've often, what is a Derby pie?

Just a pecan pie with chocolate chips, or is it something different?

You know, that's a, that's a good question.

I think that, I think there's a, a little difference, you know, the, I know Kern's kitchen in Louisville, they, uh, popularize the, the Derby pie.

They could, they could tell me more about it.

What I've, what little experience I have had with them, you know, they've got, uh, you know, peanut butter in them and extra nuts.

So really, so I think it is, um, it does have a distinction from the pecan pie, even though pecans have a strong presence in the Derby pie.

Clearly I need to do more eating in Louisville.

Clearly.

Yeah.

Well, I guess we could all do a little more probably, but, uh, not to mention they have the, uh, the slugger museum and, um, you know, the Louisville slugger field where I enjoy going to Louisville bats games with, uh, my buddy, Brian from school who lives there.

So whenever I go to Louisville and see Brian, we usually go to, uh, a bats game.

And for those of you that don't know, that is the triple A baseball team in the, in the Reds organization.

I was about to say, still affiliated with the Reds, right?

Yeah, still affiliated with the Reds.

You know, I have never even, I'd be ashamed, I guess, as a Kentucky and I have never been to Churchill downs.

You never have.

Well, never.

I'm going to make a confession.

I haven't either.

Really?

Oh, okay.

So there you go.

Yeah.

Keep that to yourself.

Pete, exactly.

Podcast land.

That's a, but I have not, I've been all around it.

Uh, I've been to plan, I've been to some Derby parties, but, um, and I've been to Kingland and Lexington.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You know, that's another historic place, right?

Um, right there.

Uh, not quite as famous as, as Churchill downs, but close, but, uh, but anyhow, yes, I did want to attend at least one Derby in my lifetime, even though some people say they go once and they don't want to fool with traffic and stuff again.

I hear it's, I hear it's kind of a, a whole ordeal, you know?

Uh, you know, it's kind of misleading.

I was like, you mean people come for the fastest two minutes in sports and they make that much effort to get there.

And then soon enough, then soon enough, I learned that there were other races throughout the day that, you know, weren't televised and so I actually go and.

Make a day of, and then, you know, uh, a decade or so ago, I learned about the Oaks and all the, and of course the Oaks is the day before.

And, and, um, Derby, it's a big, I think the Derby, of course, is Derby Thursday.

That's what the locals call it there in Louisville.

So I think they, I think they found a way to stretch it out over a full week now.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Tourism tends to do that.

You know, uh, back to the, the Derby pie, if any of our listeners know more about what makes the Derby pie, a Derby pie, they can send us an email.

How might they do that?

Sam?

Yes, please email us the, uh, the email address.

Are you ready?

I believe it's demand and disrupt at gmail.com.

I'm not sure how we established that address.

Oh, but it's all one word, all lower case.

And, um, we love hearing from our disruptors.

Don't we do.

We love hearing from disruptors.

So y'all, y'all, uh, tell us about Derby pie and Kentucky hot Browns and all, you know, about Louisville and the fun stuff to do.

I do have some trivia, uh, from an article that was written way back in 2002 when the NFB had their convention in Louisville.

And so did apparently you told me the ACB that same year.

And I'm not sure if it was the same year or in the next year or the year before, but yeah, they were, it was the hotspot for the blind people conventions.

It was, yeah, I was blind central, but, uh, but anyhow, yes.

NFB, somebody from the NFB wrote an article on the history of Louisville.

And, and, you know, it has a definite importance in the disability community with, uh, you know, uh, Kentucky school for the blind and the American printing house.

But anyway, we'll start Kimberly with, uh, with the golf house because that's where the NFB convention was held.

I don't know about the ACB that year, but the NFB national convention was, uh, at the golf house.

Do you know when the, uh, golf house opened Kimberly originally?

You could have at least given me some hints beforehand.

Well, we got to make sure you lose.

You could have given me some hints beforehand.

Uh, do I get a multiple choice?

Uh, no, I can't be that generous.

Oh, wow.

I will tell you that the, uh, there are three, uh, the current, uh, iteration of the golf house is the third one.

There were two others previously on the same location.

No, not quite.

Oh, okay.

Okay.

Gotcha.

The current one is at the fourth street and river road.

Um, the original was at the corner at the Northeast corner of seconds and main streets in Louisville.

And, uh, it was established.

Okay.

Okay.

Do I have to guess, or are you just going to go ahead and tell us?

Well, I'll give you one wild guess.

Okay.

Oh, you're making me guess.

Um, I'm going to go with 1900 just cause I don't have any idea.

You know, you're, you're not overly far off, but, uh, it was actually established in 1834.

That was real far off.

It was only 64 years in the grand scheme of things.

Wow.

That is old.

I did not realize that 1834.

Wow.

That's old.

And then the, and then that, uh, the original golf house, uh, uh, caught on fire, I think in the 1860s and then they, uh, they built a new one.

And then that had to close in the early 1900s because of financial struggles.

But, uh, anyway, that the golf house, as we know it, the current iteration has been around since 1973.

So, you know, it's not exactly new.

Uh, we will now switch gears to, um, Kentucky school for the blind, which, uh, came about in 1842.

I won't make a guess that year.

Oh, thank you.

I thought you were going to make me do years again.

Yeah.

I'll save you some, uh, some misery there, but, uh, anyhow, yeah, 1842.

That was, uh, that was it.

But anyhow, uh, it's full of history as well.

Did you know, Kimberly, that, um, Kentucky school for the blind was the sixth school for the blind to emerge in the United States?

I did not know it was the sixth, but I knew it was one of the early ones.

Does that count for something?

Yeah.

We'll give you props on that one.

It was one of the earliest.

It has a, it has a rich history and a devoted, uh, devoted alumni.

It does KCB or, uh, KSB, KSB.

So it is a devoted alumni.

I have, I have noticed that now, uh, we're going to fast forward about a hundred years to 1945 that in that year, Kimberly, uh, KSB became the first school in Kentucky to establish a team in which sports.

Would you happen to know that Kimberly?

1945 was the year KSB became the first team in Kentucky to establish which sport, the first school to establish which sport.

Uh, wheels are spinning.

I can just, they are, they are.

Um, you know, through the magic of editing, I could just get this wrong, but, but just do it, do an edit and put it in as right.

So, uh, yeah.

Nobody else has to know that you even thought about, you know, I have an idea of what I think it is, but if it's wrong, it's going to sound so stupid.

No, well, well, if it does, we'll just laugh and you'll just laugh at me.

I should be fine with that by now.

Is it fencing?

No, but that's not a bad guess.

It was wrestling, wrestling.

You know what, that was going to be my second choice was wrestling, but I had heard something.

Oh, I know what it is.

We have someone that I'm trying to get on the show who is a wheelchair fencer.

And that's why I was thinking of fence.

Oh, that's right.

We've talked about, yeah, but, um, yeah. 1945, uh, KSB has a strong wrestling history.

In fact, uh, they actually won the state wrestling title in 1966.

Oh, wow.

Uh-huh.

Oh, wow.

That was cool.

Uh-huh.

Now, uh, they don't wrestle from what I understand.

They don't wrestle at the KHSAA state level anymore.

I mean, they're still member of the KHSAA, but, uh, they have, um, they have a conference that they're in.

And I think they mainly stick to, uh, you know, their conference, uh, tournaments and things like that.

Now they do have individuals that, that wrestle, uh, in, in the state tournament, I guess, if they're a good fit and, and, uh, they can, they can hack it, so to speak, but, uh, but as a group, KSB from what I've read does not wrestle the KHSAA, uh, state tournament anymore, but that does not take away from their rich wrestling tradition that they have for sure.

And, um, so anyhow, um, and then a few, you know, APH is right there next door to it, they actually started in, uh, 1858, I guess that's 16 years after KSB began.

But anyhow, uh, did you know that in the beginning, Kimberly, APH was actually housed in rooms on KSB's campus?

I did not know that.

That is interesting.

They were housed in rooms on KSB's campus.

Although here's a little true false for you, Kimberly.

Oh good, he's going to throw me a bone.

Look at that, give me a 50% shot.

Yeah.

Good thing about this is, uh, you got a 50% chance of being right, but anyway, so, uh, true or false, uh, KSB actually served as, uh, a union hospital during the civil war.

Oh, I bet that's true.

That is in fact true.

I bet that's true.

So you did not go.

Yay, me.

I got one, you're not going to be shut out in this game, Kimberly.

So anyhow, thanks to your generosity.

That was, uh, but yes, Kentucky school for the blind.

Wasn't that the union hospital during the war.

And so, uh, private funds had to keep, uh, APH afloat, uh, during those years, but they did so lots of history in Louisville.

Oh yes, absolutely.

It's a, uh, a definite historic city.

And so you can get a feel for that.

Where do you go for, um, that advocacy conference or it is for pleasure.

It is at, yeah, the, the conference is being held at the Henry clay and it's going to be on October 16th and 17th.

And I am excited about it.

They're going to have lots of fascinating speakers, lots of chances to, well, you know what, how about we just go to my interview with Amanda Mobley and let her tell us that sounds good, but before we do Kimberly, you will be there signing autographs during that conference, right?

I'll be there doing something.

Will I be signing autographs?

I don't know if anybody wants me signing anything.

And not only anyway, but yes, we know you'll enjoy this chat with Amanda though, for sure.

Absolutely.

So listen to my chat with Amanda Mobley about the upcoming advocacy summit.

Today, I'm joined by Amanda Mobley.

She is the executive director of the center for accessible living.

Hey, Amanda, how are things going up in Louisville?

Good.

They're going good, Kimberly.

I appreciate you having me on.

It's been very busy, very busy up here, but things are good.

It is very busy at a center for accessible living or Cal as we, um, talk about it.

And I'm going to get a update from you at the beginning, at the end of the interview about all the new things coming up at Cal, but the main thing I want to talk about, which is so exciting, is the upcoming advocacy summit.

So can you tell me some about that?

Yeah.

So it's a, this will be our second annual advocacy summit in the, in the last little bit.

Um, last year was our first one and it honestly, it went better than we even expected.

And so this year, it's going to be our second annual advocacy summit.

It's going to be better than we even expected.

And so this year we're, we've learned from what mistakes we made last year.

And I think this year is going to be even better.

So the advocacy summit is, you know, it started out, I think, as just, we need a statewide advocacy network.

Kentucky needs that.

We don't, you know, what I think people have tried in the past.

We never really have a good one, a good, strong one.

And this is a way that we're able to do that and also become better advocates ourselves.

People together across the state, we all work on common causes, you know, common problems.

We can kind of work together on that.

And then we have trainings that help us become better advocates in the end.

So.

Wonderful.

Because that is so important in an advocate more today than ever, I think becoming advocates for ourselves, learning to advocate for our community.

Oh yeah.

Yeah, definitely.

Now more than ever, there's so much, so many things going on out there than so much that we need to be aware of it and be able to address as quick as we can.

So, yeah.

Who's this summit for?

Who's coming?

Honestly, it's for anyone.

It can be for people with disabilities.

It can be for families of people with disabilities.

It can be for people who just want to be a part of the cause.

It can be for other organizations that are working.

It's just, honestly, it's for anyone that wants equality for people with disabilities.

And I think that's something, you know, we're striving for every day.

So it's for anyone that wants to be involved in that.

Wow.

So that's a quite an audience there.

But a lot of people, so what will people learn who do come?

What will they learn?

So we do, the first day is more, I always call it like a pep rally.

I don't know the people that are also helping me plan that are probably like that.

It's not what it is, Amanda, but it feels like that.

Like, you know, we just kind of, we have keynote speaker.

We have, you know, a lot of different presentations of other organizations and what they offer and things like that.

And then, you know, we have a lot of good times that day, some question and answer sessions, things like that.

And then the second day we do workshops where, hey, it's kind of like, we have a couple going at once, so you kind of just get to pick which one you want to go to.

So that second day is like targeted groups to meet specific needs or things like that, like a breakout session sort of?

Yes, ma'am.

Yes, ma'am.

Yeah.

And it's smaller groups.

So it's more one-on-one kind of stuff.

Yeah.

Oh, wonderful.

Okay.

I should have said at the top that the summit is coming up on October 16th and 17th, and that is a Thursday and Friday.

And where is the summit going to be this year?

It will be at the Henry Clay here in downtown Louisville.

It's the address is 604 South Third Street.

And we will be on the third floor.

We have the entire third floor.

So there's accessible parking there.

There's accessible bathrooms.

We have all kinds of things, neat things.

We have, we're offering lunch, breakfast the first day, lunch, snacks.

We have snack opportunities, all kinds of things.

So, and it's a free event.

So, you know, you come out, you get at least free food, which is always a plus to me.

I'll go anywhere with free food.

So true.

Me too.

And I will be there.

I will be there.

I may, I'm not sure what I'll be doing.

I may be recording some things we never know what I'll do.

I know you just never do know.

And you know, another thing, I think you mentioned like accessible bathrooms and parking and things.

Sometimes I think it's important for us to go places where we know we're welcome.

Oh yeah.

Oh yeah.

That's a huge, that's a huge, huge deal.

And I, and I feel, I feel it and I make sure that's a priority where we, where we do things.

So yeah, definitely.

Yeah.

And, and I love that you call it a pep rally because I mean, you know, advocacy is work, but when you get together with other people doing it, it is fun and it's re re energizing.

Yeah.

And we get it, we get to celebrate each other that day, which is really fun.

Cause you know, all of us, whether you're, you know, no matter what area you're in and the people, you know, that come, I think everyone's doing their part and everyone needs to be celebrated in what they're doing.

So yeah, definitely.

Yes.

Well, 100%.

And so I'm, I'm excited.

I can't wait.

And so, do you know some of the speakers who are going to be there?

Yes, ma'am.

So we have a couple things.

So our keynote speaker on the first day will be Jessica from nickel is the national council on independent living.

She is well in the advocacy world and she'll be, I'm certain what she has to say.

It will be very well received and exciting for us and really get us pumped up on that first day.

Some of the, a couple of the workshops, it's going to be Kentucky fair housing is going to be doing a workshop on housing rights for people with disabilities.

And also I think they're going to be talking about violence against people with disabilities and in, you know, kind of how that plays into housing and things.

So that'll be a good one.

Protective protection and advocacy will be giving a workshop on alternatives to guardianship.

So, you know, sometimes I think people think that's the only option.

And that will be a really great, I think that'd be a really good workshop to sit in on just, you know, to learn that, Hey, that's not the only thing that we can do.

There's other things.

Way better.

True.

Way better things.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And then we also have, this is pretty exciting thing.

So the, this isn't really a speaker, but it's exciting.

The first day we have secured, someone has volunteered their time to do professional headshots.

So between eight and nine a.m., it's, it is limited.

I mean, you know, it's during that hour, but if you get there early enough, you can get a free headshot.

So, well, that's cool.

That, that is awesome.

Cause so many of us are doing work and have websites and things and we need, you know, we need that sort of stuff.

Right?

Yeah, definitely.

Wonderful.

And, you know, I'm, I hate that we have to have a discussion about violence against people with disabilities, but we do more now than ever.

It seems, you know, Amanda, for the first time I had heard that this happened, like that people would deny that someone has a disability, you know, let's say, well, no, you're not really disabled.

I guess maybe with my disability, it's so obvious that I don't, I've never had that happen, but I was actually working with someone recently.

Who, and it was in a court situation where they denied her reasonable accommodations because they said she actually could see because she was on her phone.

Yeah, you know, it's wild.

And I think with, I really think with mental health right now, too, that's just a whole nother thing.

Like, so my disabilities are mental health related.

And I think that a lot of times, if it's not visible, people, you know, don't want to really say, Hey, that's a disability.

So I run into that personally, just on that level all the time where I have to be like, Hey, I actually do have a disability that I do deal with every single day.

But you know, yeah, I get that.

Disabilities.

It's, it's funny how that works.

I feel like we're all dealing with that on some level, I think for sure.

I, and I truly don't know why it's worse now.

I truly just, it was baffling to me.

It really, really was.

And I'm sorry that you, you have to deal with that because gosh, you have to already, I mean, I personally have to fight for reasonable accommodations.

I can't imagine if people are like, no, you don't, you don't really even qualify.

That is absurd.

Well, you don't look like you have a disability.

So we don't think, you know, and that's the thing.

Like if you're high functioning and whatever it is, that doesn't mean that it's any easier, you know, you still need that.

You still need those accommodations and, and you still have to go.

Yeah, absolutely.

And what opportunities will there be for people to get together and share their experiences?

Okay.

So we do, like I said, and throughout it, we do do question and answer.

So like, you know, like sometimes people will have a comment to say whatever we do have, like, you know, we'll have microphones in the audience and things.

But the main thing will be the happy hour, which will be Thursday.

It starts at five 30 and it will be attached to the Henry Clay is the Hilton.

And so you'll, the Hilton, I think it's the Hilton Garden Inn.

He'll go there on the top floor.

We will have the happy hour.

That's a really great networking opportunity for everyone.

I think that there will be organizations, there will be people with disabilities.

There'll be families, everybody will be there.

I think it's going to be a really fun thing.

So that'd be a good time.

We'll have appetizers and things there then too.

How many people involved in planning this event?

It sounds huge.

It, well, it is, it is honestly.

So last year we did a hundred people coming and, and you know, we pretty well capped out there.

So this year we upped it to 150 because we were comfortable.

I think you learned from the year before.

So, you know, we were more comfortable upping it a little bit more this year.

And this year we're doing 150 guests.

So the planning committee consists five or six people, but I know that there's so many more involved in it than that.

Like there's so many people behind the scenes that are just, it's, it's constant, honestly, and Hannah, our marketing person here at Cal is really just, she's heading it up and doing a great job with it.

So I can't take any really of the credit at all.

It's all her.

She's doing awesome.

So you can, we'll let you take the credit.

Go ahead.

Who's going to say, I guess that's what I get to do in my role, huh?

I get to take the credit.

You absolutely do.

And you know, you said you learned from the last summit.

I think if you don't learn from the things you've done before, you're doing it wrong, don't you?

Oh, I agree.

Yeah.

And we'll, we'll learn this year.

There's no doubt about it.

We'll do things wrong.

So if you're, if you're coming to the summit and we do something wrong, we do actually send out a survey afterward.

Um, you know, just suggestions and things like that.

How could we do better?

Cause we do want to improve every year.

So that's a great idea.

That is a great idea.

So, I mean, I know last year was the first year for the summit.

So tell me, how did the idea for having the summit in Kentucky come about?

And I know you said that there was a real need, but so was there one, uh, sparring event or so how did it come about?

Okay.

So, um, it's funny, actually Cal used to host something very similar in the late nineties where other, it wasn't necessarily the exact way that we're doing it now, but, and I don't even know that it was called an advocacy summit, but it was very similar to this.

And then we just kind of, you know, it got away from us, I think.

And a couple of years ago, Dave Mathis, who you know well, I did a great job to me and said, Hey, Amanda, we used to do something like this at Cal.

I think it would be a great time to do that again and, and start an advocacy summit, you know, within, and then I thought on it and I talked with a couple of people, David Allgood was like, we really need a statewide advocacy network, like we need to do that.

And then I was like, you know, I want to be a part of it, but I want to be a better, I want to be a better advocate than I am because I think there's always room for improvement and I know that I can improve on that all the time.

So that's just kind of where it came.

And then I, you know, we, we rolled that idea around a little bit amongst leadership and then we just, I was like, let's do it.

Like, why not?

If you're, you know, everyone was like, well, we've, you know, we don't really have experience.

I was like, well, let's figure it out.

So that's what we did last year.

And it ended up, honestly, it went over so well and everybody really enjoyed themselves and I think took a lot away from it.

So now we're on the hook.

We're going to have to do it every year, Kimberly.

We're not, we're going to have to do it all the time.

So, and, and you're going to blame it all on Dave because that's what I do.

He's a, of course, executive producer.

He's listed as an executive producer of the podcast.

And so that's what I do when things don't go well, I just blame Dave.

Yeah, easy.

He's an easy scapegoat.

He is.

So we, we really do love you, Dave.

I know you're listening.

So tell me if someone's sitting there and they're thinking, huh, do I really want to do, do I want to go do it?

Do I not?

So tell me about some of the highlights from last year that might people who might be on the fence about the route, do I really want to drive to Louisville, you know, tell me about some of the things that happened last year that might, might turn, turn the tide.

So they decided to go.

Yeah.

So it was honestly, it was so good.

And like I said, we learned so much from that, but the commissioner came last year, commissioner Elridge came and announced our, that was the first announcement of our expansion project here in Kentucky, where we're covering every County in Kentucky, all the centers for independent living will be covering every County we've started that now.

It's, you know, it's a slow process, but we're working on it and be able to provide, you know, independent living services throughout the state.

We also presented two awards last year, which we will be presenting again this year.

Last year we presented all good advocacy award.

Obviously that was presented to David all good because that's who his namesake of that award.

I bet he was so surprised he had no idea.

Actually we did surprise him.

It was pretty amazing.

Um, this year I'm excited about the person that will be getting that.

I think that is, it's going to, I mean, I'm always excited.

I think awards are few and far between, especially in our line of work.

And I think that recognizing people for the hard work they do that often goes unnoticed is, is so important and so exciting to do.

And then last year we also did the community champion award that went to forever.

Yes.

Last year with, um, I actually, I actually personally presented that to Donna Fox, the late Donna Fox.

So that was really special moment for me.

And I think a special moment for everyone.

So Donna Fox, of course, beloved in the Kentucky disability community and passed away, uh, this year or so.

Yeah, definitely.

So we, I think that, you know, there's a lot of different things.

I do know that the awards are pretty special for me.

I enjoy those.

And like I said, just being able to celebrate everyone is really important to me.

So wonderful.

So how do people register for the summit if they want to go?

So a couple of ways.

One, if you are tech savvy and you're on social media, which I know not all of us are.

I, if you're listening to a podcast, I feel like you're somewhat tech savvy though.

So probably a little more tech savvy than me.

Um, then you can go to our social media, uh, we have links on all social media on all platforms, pretty much.

If you look up center for accessible living, I think we're on the majority of them.

And you can click on the link to register on there.

You can go to our website under the events tab.

There is a link for the advocacy summit.

It's really simple.

It's just a simple form you fill out and that way you can give any accommodation through accommodations.

You may need any other accommodations.

You can submit those on there.

Or if you, if you don't want to do any of that, you're, you're not on any of those things and you just really just want to talk to someone you can call the center here in Louisville, our number is 502-589-6620, extension 121, and her name is Hannah Richards and she'll get you signed up and ready to go.

And are you still taking registrations?

Are there still spots available?

Oh yeah.

So we, I think I, the latest number I heard we were at 60 something.

I think I'm certain we're higher than that now because that's been a couple of weeks ago.

So yeah, up until the day of, as long as we have space available, we'll, we'll get you in there where we just want everybody that can come.

It's a free event.

Like I think I said that already, but it, you know, last year we, we did kind of like pay as you can or pay what you can this year.

We strive to make it completely free and we were able to do that.

And we're really with the help of sponsors and all that.

We're really excited about, about being able to do that.

So.

Wonderful.

Wonderful.

And I know if people are like me, I don't plan anything.

Okay.

Nothing.

I last minute is, is how I roll.

So I'm sure you may be at 60 now.

I'm sure the day of it'll be maxed out.

Oh yeah.

Oh yeah.

That's how last year's went.

So I'm sure this year will be the same.

Yep.

I never plan anything.

This is why we don't take vacations because I decided I want to go somewhere tomorrow and of course everywhere's booked and has been for a year, but.

Yeah, I get that.

Tell me now what else is going on at Cal because like you said, there's, there's been a lot of, a lot of excitement over the last year since the last summit.

So tell me what new things we're doing.

Yeah.

So here in Louisville at the Louisville office, we've had the Caltech, which is the assistive technology resource center here in Louisville used to be housed at Spalding it's, it's housed here in house now.

So that's really exciting.

We're working on that.

I think that's growing a lot.

So any kind of durable medical equipment you need, anything like that, come talk to Rob, you can call the front desk, call that number I mentioned earlier, talk to the front desk, they can, they can help you out.

It's exciting.

So it's like free rentals of any of that kind of stuff.

We do demos for some things.

So, Hey, if you're thinking about you want, you're wanting to try out a ring doorbell, we can give you a demo on that and how that works and that's one-on-one.

We can sit down and talk to you about that.

Also right now with, you know, we've had a little leadership changes, which I say recently, and it's not recent anymore.

I got to get together on that because it feels very recent, but you know, our last strategic plan ran through 2025.

So we're currently working on our next five year plan for Cal and where we want to go and what we want to do.

We sent out a, a survey, we posted it on social media.

We sent it out to staff and we sent it out to our board and other organizations in the community.

And we're working on that and what we want to do with Cal.

And I think some of the things that we're working on are really fun.

Like I'm pretty excited about being able to, like we want to go out into the community more, I think, and we've really worked on that hard in the last five years.

But now we want to work on doing etiquette trainings.

We want to do work on accessibility surveys in the community, making sure people know the accessible businesses out there and how accessible the city that you're in is.

And so we're starting with Louisville specifically on that.

We're going to start doing accessibility surveys around Louisville and just, you know, Hey, this restaurant's accessible.

They've went through an etiquette training.

You know what I mean?

Like, Hey, you're visiting.

You want to go here.

So we'll have a webpage up on the website eventually of all those shortly.

That's exciting.

But we got a lot of new grants in the works, so that's fun too.

Hope you mentioned, you mentioned expansion to the, um, I didn't know if that was, I know it will be a slow rollout because there's a lot involved, but do you want to talk about that?

Or is that still?

Yeah, no, yeah, yeah.

Great.

Let's talk about it.

Yeah.

So we've started the expansion process.

I know it's been, it has been slow going even up until now, but we are going to be expanding Cal specifically.

We will be expanding into 49 more counties than we are now.

I think we're at 30, we were at 30 something now we've added 49 on.

So that's fun.

Now the, the start of that is not going to be all five core services in every single county.

That's not practical.

Right.

Because we would have to really get a lot of income for that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Cause you have to double staff to do that.

Yeah.

But we are working on placing some remote workers throughout the state.

And right now we're really just kind of doing some data collection just to see what services are needed where, and specifically, you know, what areas are lacking the most, which I know that's a lot of Kentucky.

I'm not oblivious to that, but we are working on the, we want to place people in the most strategic places.

So we want to, we want to, we're making sure that's going to happen.

So if you are in an area and you think, Hey, I, you know, we don't have the services and this could be a really helpful thing here, please reach out.

To us, you can call here and you can reach out to me specifically.

I'm happy if you want to do my extension, let me look it up.

Cause I don't know what I should know it, but I don't call myself one nine.

So I call that, five Oh two, eight, five, five, eight, nine, six, six, two zero and extension one one nine.

And I can write that down because we do, we're, we're working on collecting that.

I can get that to Renee, she's working on it specifically, but right now we're showing the works of how that collection process is going to work for her.

But yeah, that's something exciting.

We are upgrading most of our social media is going to be more, you know, user friendly.

We're working on making all of that in our website, all user friendly.

So, I mean, we've done pretty good upgrading that in the past, but we're really working on that now.

So, well, wonderful.

Amanda Mobley, thanks for joining me.

And I think, I think October's a great time to visit Louisville.

It is, it definitely has come up here and we'll have some fun in October.

Sounds good.

So October 16th and 17th, the advocacy summit from the center for accessible living and tell me again, where that's going to be located.

It'll be at the Henry Clay here on third street in Louisville on the third floor.

Okay.

Everything's accessible.

Everything's accessible.

And we have also, I forgot to add, there is a parking lot that we've rented out across the street from the Henry Clay that you can park at and it's super easy.

It's right across the street, easy to cross there.

So yeah.

Okay.

Wonderful.

And I know on the registration, if you have particular needs, there's a place there to list that, list your accessibility needs.

If you need something additional or extra, maybe something you think we haven't thought of, go ahead and list that there.

And I'm sure that someone, not me, but someone will make it happen.

Perfect.

Sounds perfect.

All right.

Thanks, Amanda, for joining me.

Thank you.

I appreciate you.

Demand and Disrupt is a production of the Advocato Press with generous support from the center for accessible living based in Louisville, Kentucky.

Our executive producers are me, Kimberly Parsley and Dave Mathis.

Our sound engineer is Michael Parsley.

Thanks to Chris Anken for the use of his song, Change.

Don't forget to follow or subscribe so you never miss an episode.

And please consider leaving a review.

You could find links to our email and social media in the show notes.

Please reach out and let's keep the conversation going.

Thanks everyone.

You say you've seen a change in me, just for once, I think I would agree.

We both know there's a difference, we've had our curtain call, this time the right thing's on the wall.

This wall of words we can't defend.

Two damaged hearts refuse to mend.

Change, this situation's pointless with each and every day.

It's not a game we need to play.

Change, we tried to make things better.

Prepare and rearrange things, but each and every letter spells out this need for us to open up our minds and hearts to change.

Slowly, words ice than what will be, will be, disregard for good to set us free.

Change, there's just no way of knowing, if love lives anymore, we'll turn out the light and close the door.

Change, we tried to make things better.

Prepare and rearrange things, but each and every letter spells out this need for us to open up our minds and hearts to change.

Change, church.

Church. you you