Dear neighbors,
Here at The Ability Collective of Barry County, we are working to reduce the seen and unseen barriers facing people with disabling conditions or health concerns. Do you have a grandparent? Have you ever needed durable equipment such as a cane or a walker? Dialysls? Prescription medications? Heart condition? Asthma? Please read on, this is for you.
Our communities are undergoing a seismic shift. At a macro-level, budget re-prioritization and policy differences may lead to major infrastructural changes that are difficult to comprehend. You might not feel the rumble yet, but if you work in healthcare, education, public health, or community development, you’ve probably seen the forecast.
It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the big picture or tune it all out. But we can’t. As a community, we must work together in small but significant ways to ensure that our people are still with us on the other side of change. For example, have you checked on your neighbor lately? If you haven’t, stop right here and go do it now.
Are you back?
We love belonging to a community that values our people. We love having grocery stores nearby. Roads that get plowed. A local hospital, when we need one. All those things only exist because people live here, and people stay here when we maintain that feeling of belonging for all of us. If we want thriving businesses, we need healthy families to shop in them. If we want strong schools, we need stable homes and supportive services. If we want a community with a future, we need to take care of one another’s health and well-being.
Here in Barry County, we’re staring down cuts that could touch everything from access to doctors to summer programming for kids. Cuts that may feel distant from you, but they are not distant from your community.
Starting this fall, programs will close. Services will change. Community events and opportunities will fade. The first to feel it will be those with the fewest resources: people with disabilities, older adults, families below the poverty line, and veterans.
But it doesn’t have to end there. We can choose another path. One where we rely on each other instead of waiting for help from policymakers. No one is going to save our community but us.
What does this mean for you?
- If you’re a community leader: Learn about mutual aid. Many faith-based groups in our community already do this well. How can we expand that model beyond our walls?
- If you’re a family raising a child with a disability, connect with other families. Share what you need, and what you have to give. Sometimes it’s extra formula, sometimes it’s a shoulder to lean on.
- If you’re a business owner or philanthropist: Invest in Barry County like our future depends on it, because it does. That could mean small steps (like making your business more accessible), moderate steps (like funding a ramp), or transformational ones (like sponsoring local programs that fill service gaps).
We need every single one of us. At The Ability Collective, we’re working every day to find community-led solutions that will hold steady no matter how much the ground shakes.
Will you join us?
"A choir is made up of many voices, including yours and mine. If one by one all go silent then all that will be left are the soloists. Don’t let a loud few determine the nature of the sound. It makes for poor harmony and diminishes the song." - Vera