Supportive Housing Association of New Jersey

Strengthening Inclusive Leadership Initiative (SILI)

The Supportive Housing Association of New Jersey (SHA), in partnership with the Support Center, is pleased to launch the Strengthening Inclusive Leadership Initiative (SILI). Building on SHA’s previous success with its IHC funded Integrated Community Project (ICP), the SILI will address the underrepresentation of individuals with disabilities on Advisory Boards and Boards of Directors (AB/BODs) of nonprofit and other corporations in New Jersey.  

SILI is driven by the belief that individuals with disabilities—especially those further marginalized by race, age, socioeconomic status, immigration status, gender, or sexual orientation—bring invaluable lived experience to leadership spaces and decision-making tables. 

The strategic approach involves establishing the Inclusive Community Advocacy Council (ICAC) to guide and support the initiative. Inclusive leadership training will be developed and delivered in partnership with the Support Center. 

The initiative also aims to offer inclusive AB/BOD training for organizations, a matching process to connect trained participants with AB/BOD opportunities, and promote a culture shift toward inclusive leadership within organizations. 

The strategy also includes facilitating the placement and onboarding of individuals with disabilities onto AB/BOD and providing ongoing support and mentorship to ensure long-term success and impact. 

Our first activity in this project was to conduct a survey of SHA’s network of about 120 member organizations. This survey was conducted to ensure that these organizations will benefit from the outcomes of this project, in terms of meeting their needs for inclusive board representation. We are now interviewing candidates for the Inclusive Community Advocacy Council (ICAC.) To learn more about the SILI, please contact Denise Majka, Project Coordinator, Strengthening Inclusive Leadership Initiative at Denise.Majka@shanj.org.

Integrated Community Project

The goal of the Integrated Community Project (ICP) is to increase the capacity of people with disabilities to become completely engaged in their communities. In order to do this, we initially worked in three selected counties, Bergen, Camden, and Ocean, assessing communities’ current successes and opportunities to grow their community integration, involvement and engagement. We expect the project to impact a combined 300,000 individuals who live with disabilities such as physical, intellectual and developmental, mental health and substance abuse disabilities and who experience homelessness and/or who are aging.

Over the summer of 2021, forty-four people with lived experience participated in focus groups in our three selected counties. Through the focus groups, we learned how community integration is working and where there is room to improve community involvement. After the focus groups, we invited participants with lived experience to join the Integrated Community Project (ICP) Leadership Teams in our three selected counties.

SHA has worked with our two project partners, the New Jersey Coalition to End Homelessness (NJCEH) and the New Jersey Council on Developmental Disabilities (NJCDD), and organizational leaders and leaders with lived experience to develop an ICP Self-Assessment for municipalities. People with a full range of disabilities lead the work towards equity and reducing the stereotypes that people with lived experience often face day-to-day, decreasing prejudice against and stigma affecting the population and providing leadership opportunities to people living with disabilities.

The leadership teams advised us in the selection of the initial three municipalities in each county to participate in the Self-Assessments. What we learned from leaders and through the interactive Self-Assessment meetings with cities and towns guided the content of and resources included in the ICP Toolkit for Municipalities.

We are defining community integration, involvement and engagement and exemplifying where community involvement works. With leadership from individuals with disabilities and those who work to support them, communities can continue to make decisions to move toward full inclusiveness and understanding of the potential of people of all abilities. We are working towards a future in which people with lived experience of disabilities and barriers will be employed in meaningful work, access community facilities, and live in affordable and supportive housing. Individuals will vote, inform policymakers, make recommendations and advocate to officials at all levels about their needs and hold elected office themselves.