FACT Oregon Awarded $150,000 Equitable Education Grant from Meyer Memorial Trust
(Portland, Oregon) FACT Oregon is honored to announce the award of a $150,000 grant from Meyer Memorial Trust *Equitable Education portfolio* over two years. These funds will build FACT Oregon’s capacity to engage families in legislative, policy, and advocacy work to improve equity for students with disabilities.
This grant helps FACT Oregon further our mission to empower families and transform disability. Specifically, we will increase our staff and infrastructure to support legislative and policy work, grow relationships with community-based and culturally specific equity partners, increase communication about legislative/policy issues to families, and activate emerging parent leaders in coalition building and the pursuit of education-focused legislative and policy changes. Together, our aim is to change systems in a way that promotes equity and leads to meaningful progress on issues important to families experiencing disability, including parental input, graduation rates and student outcomes, access to general education settings, disproportionate representation, and more.
Executive Director Roberta Dunn says, “We’re thrilled to see Meyer Memorial Trust embrace our approach, which marries the yin of family support and training to the yang of collective community action.”
About FACT Oregon:
FACT Oregon empowers families of youth experiencing disability to pursue whole lives. Our peer support, trainings, resources, and advocacy help families hold high expectations and a positive vision, navigate disability and special education, access community, and advocate for the support their children deserve to live self-determined lives. Since 2012, we have served as Oregon’s Parent Training & Information Center. Our vision is to bring about transformed communities that are accessible, welcoming, anti-ableist, and supportive of self-determination. Learn more at www.factoregon.org.
About Meyer Memorial Trust’s Equitable Education portfolio:
In a flourishing and equitable Oregon, each of our nearly 600,000 students have the opportunity to succeed in school. They enter ready to learn, develop a love of learning in a relevant, engaging and supportive environment and graduate with a plan for postsecondary and career success.
Through the Equitable Education portfolio, Meyer Memorial Trust contributes to this vision by investing in strategies designed to eliminate the predictable gaps in the public K-12 system. We seek to balance our investments between the urgent needs of students today (direct service) and the system that must prepare itself to meet the needs of students tomorrow (policy- and systems-level change). Learn more at www.mmt.org/portfolio/education/about.