2021 in Review: IMPACT, EPIC, and Greater Boston
As Triangle closes out its 50th year of service to the disability community of Massachusetts, we are taking a tour around the different cities, towns, and regions that we serve to highlight the impact that our champions, friends, partners, and donors are making in their local communities. If you haven’t already had a chance to support us, we welcome you to make an end-of-year donation here.
In the past 17 years, Triangle completed strategic mergers and partnership agreements with IMPACT Boston and EPIC (Empowering People for Inclusive Communities). These two programs work out of Triangle’s Boston office at the NonProfit Center near South Station. While IMPACT and EPIC each offer services to all of Triangle’s programs in other regions, Greater Boston serves as the hub for their programming. Both IMPACT and EPIC, along with Triangle’s Workforce Development team, provide services to Boston Public Schools as part of a comprehensive partnership with the Commonwealth’s largest school district. This partnership allows Triangle to provide abuse prevention, self-advocacy, healthy relationship, sex education, and vocational training programs to more than 200 BPS special education students.
In 2021, IMPACT and EPIC achieved the following:
- IMPACT led 653 classes that reached 1,832 students, including people with disabilities and specialty classes for Asian American Pacific Islander individuals, college-bound teenagers, and individuals working in the theater community.
- EPIC continued to build the next generation of disability advocates through its flagship program, Service Warriors.
- 22 students and young adults with disabilities from greater Boston and greater Worcester participated in the mostly virtual program in 2021.
- These Service Warriors completed 7 community service projects that provided supplies and activity kits to local nursing homes, hospitals, and schools.
- EPIC’s Youth Support Groups engaged 78 students and young adults with disabilities in Zoom sessions that allowed current Service Warriors and program alumni to continue to build and support each member of the EPIC community. These sessions are primarily driven by the feedback of EPIC youth and include self-care, disability rights education/advocacy, and conversations related to current events.
- IMPACT continued to implement its newest program, Online Safety. This program was developed as the COVID-19 pandemic forced all members of society, including students and adults with disabilities, to interact in virtual settings and social media. This class helps people spot potentially harmful scams, use privacy settings on social media platforms, and make healthy decisions when meeting new friends on the internet.
- EPIC continued to offer ableism training sessions and consulting services to community organizations, colleges and universities, and companies. Disability inclusion is often an overlooked aspect of the larger conversation related to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). Led by Jeff Lafata-Hernandez, EPIC engaged 28 companies in this crucial work in 2021.
