As we get ready for the grand opening of the hybrid San Francisco Disability Cultural Center (DCC) this July, we have received a lot of questions about how the DCC came to be. So here’s a bit of history that allows us to throw flowers for the many disabled community members who helped make this moment possible!
The Bay Area has been a center of the disability rights movement since the early 1970s. In 1977, just 4 blocks from the DCC, disabled activists and organizers held the longest non-violent sit-in of a federal building in history. The Bay Area has also been a hub for disability culture, with early culture producers like Axis Dance, Sins Invalid, the Disability Visibility Project, and the Disability Justice Culture Club, and some of the earliest centers for disability arts, like NIAD, Creativity Explored, and Creative Growth.
The DCC will be the first public disability cultural center in the country. Our dream is to use this space, virtual and in-person, as a container to showcase the incredible work of disabled people in our community. We know the importance of preserving and passing down our culture, and this is our way of doing just that.
History of the DCC!
2016 – 2017
The city of San Francisco has a tax payer-funded bucket of money called The Dignity fund. It’s meant to keep disabled San Franciscans and elders living in their homes and communities while remaining safe, independent, and engaged. In 2016, the city looked into the fund to measure its impact. The results showed that while our elders were seeing benefits, many disabled people had not felt the same rewards.
Nicole Bohn (then Director of the Mayor’s Office on Disability) and Shireen McSpadden (then Director of the Department of Disability and Aging Services) spearheaded a novel idea: a Disability Cultural Center, which could serve the disability community.
2018-2019
From 2018-2019, Emily Beitiks and Cathy Kudlick at the Paul K. Longmore Institute on Disability at San Francisco State University with Christine Rodrigues at R&P Associates assembled an advisory council, held focus groups, hit the pavement, collected surveys, met with key stakeholders, and visited existing cultural centers. Their question: How could a new Disability Cultural Center fill the hopes and dreams of San Francisco’s diverse disability communities?
Their in-depth research confirmed that disabled San Franciscans experience discrimination, social isolation, lack of access, and other forms of ableism. They wanted a dedicated place in the community where they could restore themselves, feel safe, and connect with each other. Not only that, they needed it hybrid (in 2018!) so folks could have community from home. They also learned that most people with and without disabilities do not recognize disability identity, culture, and community – they do not feel disability is publicly honored and celebrated.
Based on the rich information they collected, the Longmore Institute, along with an all-disabled Advisory Council, wrote their Final Report and made recommendations to the city.
Longmore’s report shared that it’s critical that the DCC center joy and community, be non-institutional and non-carceral, center folks who are marginalized within disability communities, and be disabled-led.
2020 – 2022
The pandemic slowed our timeline, but opened the door for a partnership with The Kelsey. The Kelsey, a disability-forward housing developer, won a contract with the city and proposed they house the San Francisco Disability Cultural Center on the ground floor of their new building.
It was a perfect match. Cultural centers attached to housing thrive because residents provide a foundational community and the culture center brings vibracy and joy.
2023
In 2023, the the city of San Francisco officially opened the proposal process for operators of the DCC!
Organizations submitted proposals that talked about their visions for virtual programming, designing a joyful and cozy home for our beautiful disability communities. L.C. and Lillie Cox Haven of Hope (Haven of Hope), led by Executive Director Dr. Darcelle Lahr, was selected with a two-year collaborative contract with the Longmore Institute.
In October, the DCC officially began its planning phase!
The DCC is run by co-directors Emily Beitiks, Mika Kie Weissbuch, Dagny Brown. Using a care-centered, interdependent staffing model, we started designing the space, planning events, creating systems, and most importantly, connecting with community.
2024
This story started in 2016 and before doing too much, we needed an update from our community! We held compensated focus groups, made site visits around the city, hosted a virtual town hall, met with dozens of community groups, and gathered survey responses.
We wanted to hear from folks who don’t often feel belonging in disability-centered spaces – people who are BIPOC, LGBTQ+, unhoused, physically isolated, Deaf, transition-age youth, and veterans. The results were much the same. We still needed a hybrid space (way to be ahead of the curve, disabled folks!) that is cozy, anti-carceral, full of life, and centered on joy.
We launched virtually in July 2024 and have hosted hundreds of events ranging from explorations of care work to cooking dinner and chatting about dating and intimacy. We’ve gathered a community of over 4,000 people and it keeps growing.
Present
As of the writing of this post, we are eagerly awaiting the furniture delivery in our new space and picking out beautiful (allergen-free!) plants. We can’t wait to open our doors in July!
But remember, as much love and care as we’re pouring into our physical home – we’ll continue to pour just as much into our virtual community. We’re here for the long haul, and we’re here together.
