Joint Statement from Triangle, Inc. and IMPACT Boston
The following is a joint statement issued by Triangle, Inc. CEO Coleman Nee and IMPACT Boston Executive Director Meg Stone
Together, Triangle, Inc. and IMPACT Boston announce that the two entities will formally separate as of July 1, 2023. IMPACT Boston will become an independent nonprofit organization. This follows 18 years of fruitful partnership and collaboration with Triangle serving as IMPACT Boston’s parent organization. Triangle has a mission of empowering and enriching the lives of people with disabilities and their families. IMPACT Boston works to prevent violence and abuse by giving people the skills to protect their safety and advocate for healthy relationships and sexual respect in their communities.
The two organizations came together 2005 to create both financial and operational efficiencies. In 2010, the two organizations combined their expertise and missions to successfully launch IMPACT:Ability, an evidence-based abuse and violence prevention and safety education program for people with disabilities. IMPACT:Ability has expanded over the years to include additional curricula on healthy relationships, healthy sexuality and internet safety. Both Triangle and IMPACT Boston will continue offering abuse prevention programs to people with disabilities and will work together to ensure that all schools and disability service agencies across Massachusetts have access to these programs.
As of July 1st, 2023, Triangle will retain two longtime abuse prevention specialists who will provide an array of service offerings to the disability community under the new name Triangle Abuse Prevention & Safety (TAPS). IMPACT Boston’s team of abuse prevention educators will offer programs to youth and adults with disabilities under the new names Ability:IMPACT and Empower:Ability.
This decision comes after careful consideration brought about by our recent strategic planning process, which was led by a third-party consulting group in 2022. As a result of a thoughtful analysis of each organization’s goals and future opportunities, it became clear that the partnership was a crossroads, and it made the most sense for each organization to independently pursue their missions.
For Triangle, this means expanding the number of people it reaches with a variety of disability services program offerings by 50% – an additional 1,000 people – by the end of 2027. A major piece of this growth will be driven by our relationship with local school systems by expanding on existing collaboration focused on employment, selfadvocacy, abuse prevention, and ableism/disability awareness training programs. Additional growth goals include the expansion of the organization’s residential program from nine to 12 homes and growth of its recently launched Prism Program for autistic young adults who need individualized, self-directed services. You can learn more about this comprehensive Five-Year Growth Plan here.
For IMPACT Boston, this means continuing our strong commitment to empowerment and abuse prevention programs for disability communities and also expanding collaborations with other communities that experience high rates of abuse and violence, including women of color, LGBTQ+ people, indigenous people, and teens of all genders and abilities. We will continue working with organizations to create policies and cultures that proactively prevent abuse and grow our programs that bring critical de-escalation skills to organizations that support people in crisis, including domestic violence and sexual assault programs, human service agencies, and public safety initiatives that provide an alternative to policing. IMPACT Boston will continue offering empowerment self-defense courses to businesses, schools, colleges, and individuals. We also look forward to engaging in systems and policy advocacy to change the conditions that make abuse and violence possible.
The leadership of both Triangle and IMPACT Boston are looking forward to the new opportunities this transition presents. We are grateful for 18 years of partnership and looking forward to staying connected as colleagues and collaborators in the years to come.