Do you ever wake up in the middle of the night, remember a story you heard about someone you admire and wonder “Where are they now?” 

A few years back we introduced you to Melissa Crisp Cooper, who was the first Chairwoman of WITH’s Self-Advocacy Advisory Committee. Melissa first became involved in health advocacy for people with disabilities over a decade ago when she worked for the State Council on Developmental Disabilities.  As a Consumer Visitor with the Life Quality Assessment project, she helped to interview hundreds of Regional Center consumers near Sacramento. After moving to the bay area, she became involved with  the Office of Developmental Primary Care at UCSF, where she co-authored “A Self Advocate’s Guide to Growing Up”.

Where is she now? It turns out that Melissa is all over the place

“I just started working on the SDM for AAC users project with the Office of Developmental Primary Care.”

The project was made possible by funding by WITH and Ability Central Philanthropy.

The goal of the project is to engage self-advocate leaders who use Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC), their supporters and thought leaders from organizations promoting Supported Decision-Making (SDM) in a collaborative effort to develop a process guide. The guide will offer pragmatic advice on managing ethical challenges, uncertainty, and logistical issues that commonly arise when applying SDM principles to informed consent for AAC users in health care settings. The guide will be grounded in the Office of Developmental Primary Care’s experience with diverse populations of AAC users in inpatient, outpatient, and long-term care settings across California.

Melissa is also on the board of Communication First, the only nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting and advancing the civil rights of the more than 5 million people of all ages in the United States who, due to disability or other condition, are unable to rely on speech alone to communicate. 

Communication First was also awarded funding from WITH and Ability Central Philanthropy for an SDM initiative.

Melissa also worked on a census outreach project for the Center for Independent Living in Berkeley, and is the co-chair of the Local Advisory Committee for the Self-Determination Program through the Regional Center.

Thank you Melissa!

NEW FUNDING OPPORTUNITY: Are you working on pandemic and/or emergency response? Check out our RFP at withfoundation.org/current-grant- Submission Deadline is 09/03/20.