Tapping Into Disabled Youth’s Power: ADAPT

Jason Glozier¹, ADAPT Youth Organizer, challenges disabled youth to put action where their mouth is and get organized to solve problems, instead of whining about the "unfairness" of the world .

Youth organizing came to the forefront in the early 1970s with the advent of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and over the last 30 years hasn't changed much in theory. In practice though there have been substantial changes both for the good and the bad. Generation next- the generation that is now in their late teens and early twenty something's- the target group for youth organizers, are accused of complacency and lethargy, possibly the two biggest blockades to organizing. It seems to me that, as a whole the latter is truer than the former. I talk to a lot of young people and almost every single one has some sort of complaint that could be solved by organizing and doing some good old fashioned in your face direct action. Yet, when you get down to brass tacks you find that now people seem to be all talk- with very little action to back it up. What little direct action that takes place seems to be strictly media propaganda put out by middle age mothers of soldiers in Iraq.

Direct action is a form of political activism, which seeks immediate remedy for perceived ills, as opposed to indirect actions such as electing representatives who promise to provide solutions at some later date. Direct action can include such activities as strikes, workplace occupations, sabotage, sit-ins, squatting, revolutionary/guerrilla warfare, demonstrations, vandalism or graffiti. Less confrontational forms of direct action include establishing radical social centers and performing street theatre. Utilizing resources within their power, direct action participants aim to solve problems major societal institutions (businesses, governments, powerful churches or establishment unions) are not addressing.

You may well ask: "Why direct action? Why sit-ins, marches and so forth? Isn't negotiation a better path?" You are quite right in calling for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community that has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored.
-Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail

ADAPT, the national disability rights organization is working to build the bridges and develop new leadership by facilitating an annual Youth Leadership Summit. This is an opportunity to recruit the leaders of tomorrow through training on direct action and community organizing. This summer in early July Youth activist are gathering in Chicago for the second annual event.

Young people today have more power than any group out there, we just need to tap and harness that energy, then focus it to making real social change instead of worrying about having the latest cell phone or the trendiest clothes, and trying to keep up with whatever other fads we bide our time with. Thoreau said that every majority starts out as a minority. Well folks I'm here to tell you that we are the majority already, now we just need to come together as a unified force.

Recognizing the void that is growing between disability activists from the pre-ADA battles and the new generation, ADAPT is filling that hole with youth that have an understanding and commitment to community organizing. ADAPT’s Youth Network will carry on the fight to Free Our People. Alone it's overwhelming, but together we can change the world.

1. Jason Glozier has been a member of ADAPT since he was eleven years old. He has been involved in the direct action organizing for over ten years now. Jason is one of the organizers of the National ADAPT Youth Summit planning team. He works with people with developmental disabilities at Futures through Choices in Salt Lake City, Utah as well as being a member of Utah DRAC (Disabled Rights Action Committee).