What is home? Public Integrity event will feature disabled storytellers

This event is called “What is Home?” It will take place on July 26 at 7 p.m. Eastern time. 

The event will have: 

• Stories about home from 4 people with disabilities. 
• A panel discussion. 

Amy Silverman will lead the event. Amy wrote a story for the Center for Public Integrity last year. The story was about how hard it was to find safe homes for people with complex disabilities. This story won an award. 

Most news about people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) does not include what people with IDD think. 

Amy created Wordslaw so people with IDD can tell their own stories. 

This event has stories about home. The storytellers are:

Paul Costantini: Paul is an actor at Detour Company Theatre. Detour is a theater for people with IDD and other disabilities. 

Leah Mapstead: Leah is an actor at Detour. Leah volunteers at the Phoenix Herpetological Society, which has a home for rescued reptiles. 

Hailey Simon: Hailey is a life-long storyteller who is Deaf. 

Sophie Stern: Sophie is a dancer. She goes to Glendale Community College. She is an actor at Detour. 

After the stories, there will be a panel discussion. 

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What is home? Public Integrity will host event featuring disabled storytellers

For this panel discussion, four people with disabilities will share their stories around the theme: “What is home?”

Panel leader:

Amy Silverman: Amy is a journalist, teacher, and memoir writer. She is from Phoenix. Amy is the executive producer for The Show. The Show is a radio program on KJZZ, Phoenix’s NPR member station. Amy will moderate the panel. 

Panel:

Becca Monteleone: Becca is an assistant professor of disability studies. She works at the University of Toledo. 

Patricia M. Jones: Patricia is a person with a developmental disability. She is a certified Therapeutic Recreation Specialist. She has been part of the Independent Living Movement since the 1990s. 

Zoe Gross: Zoe is Director of Advocacy at the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network. 

This event is on Zoom. You must register to come. 

You will get reminders and a Zoom link once you register. 

The event will have:

• American Sign Language interpreter
• Closed captioning
• Audio description

Register at Eventbrite. 

Read Amy’s story here.