I am glad WNC Resilience / ACEs exists. My Mom died of a brain tumor when I was four so I can understand why ACE awareness and treatment matters.

I was disappointed in attempting to arrange a forum for people with disabilities for Asheville and Buncombe. Local government and the existing nonprofits seem to have no interest in seeing local PwDs organize their voice. There seems to have been some success with the NC Stakeholders Group (NC SEG) and for unknown reasons the entire concept was eliminated by State of North Carolina. Not having ANY public officials willing to track down answers for such things does not add to the solutions for NAMI and other PwD stakeholder groups… and for PwDs in shape to self-advocate… having some folks on the other side of the franchise to communicate with.

NC SEG looks a bit like a political avatar for McCrory era ‘Medicaid Reform’ and ongoing ‘mental healthcare reform’ (universal healthcare, please… better than the VA). At the same time there are some important issues that the NC SEG team pulled together too:

North Carolina Stakeholder Engagement Group

I can’t tell what the deal is, but it’s something to fix as to WNC justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion programing. I have to imagine WNC Resilience / ACEs includes for PwD matters as folks with disabilities have a particularly tough time in life: 

Asheville and Buncombe County’s Agenda for People with Disabilities

https://mountainx.com/blogwire...e-with-disabilities/

Asheville and Buncombe County’s Agenda for People with Disabilities PPT

http://sustainnc.com/wp-conten...017-presentation.pdf

Please share any questions. Frankly I’m not sure what the call to action is as our local PwDs seem very unaccustomed to organizing their voice. There’s only 10,000 PwDs in Asheville alone!


Best wishes,

Grant