February 2019 ––The Golisano Foundation is once again joining Special Olympics and Best Buddies to Spread the Word.
Exclusion and discrimination continue to divide people with and without intellectual and developmental disabilities. We are changing that with grassroots action for inclusion - Spread the Word.
Spread the Word is a global engagement campaign to increase inclusion amongst people with and without and developmental disabilities through grassroots action. In schools, workplaces, and communities around the world, local leaders are taking a pledge to create socially inclusive places to learn, work, and live.
Founded by two youth leaders in 2009 as Spread the Word to End the Word, the campaign focused its first 10 years on addressing a particularly powerful form of exclusion: the word ‘retard(ed)’. Over 10 years, leaders and self-advocates collected millions of digital and physical pledges to end the R-word. Each of these pledges was a personal commitment to acknowledge the hurt caused by the R-word and to be respectful in the words and actions taken towards people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. With leadership from Special Olympics and Best Buddies and support from hundreds of other advocacy organizations, the campaign grew from a handful events in 2009 to reach thousands of schools by 2018.
In 2019, Spread the Word to End the Word became Spread the Word, with a focus not just on the elimination of a word but on the creation of a new reality: inclusion for all people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The campaign remains committed to empowering grassroots leaders to change their communities, schools, and workplaces, now through a call to their peers to commit to taking action for inclusion. With this change, Spread the Word will give community leaders for inclusion around the world the tools the needed to create change in their local circumstances.
Grassroots action can end the discrimination and exclusion faced by people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and replace it with inclusion. The first 10 years of Spread the Word to End the Word have only made us more confident in this belief. But they have also shown how much more work remains to be done.
Make your pledge and take your action for a more inclusive world. Join millions who have done the same. And spread the word.
Share the pledge link in your social media, emails newsletter, and web site.
Email Ann Costello and let her know what you are planning so we can share it in our news releases.
Watch the City of Rochester’s Mayor Lovely Warren Message to Make the Pledge for Inclusion
Our Thanks to Those Who Are Spreading the Word in 2019!
Highlights of Spread the Word Activities:
March 4th 8:30 a.m. – March is Inclusion Month Kick-off Assembly at Notre Dame High School, 73 Union St, Batavia - Media contact: Loren Penman (585) 409-6931
March 4th 6:30 – Everybuddies Concert, Nazareth College Linehan Chapel (located on the 1st floor of the Golisano Academic Center), 4245 East Ave., Rochester - Media contact: Jaxon Smith (518) 256-5880
March 8th 5 to 10 p.m. – Night of Inclusion with the Amerks, Blue Cross Arena, 100 Exchange Blvd, Rochester; discounted ticket prices, pledge banner signing – Media Contact: Lindsay Jewett (585) 259-4558
March 10th 2 to 6 p.m. – Pledge Banner Signing with the Amerks, Blue Cross Arena, 100 Exchange Blvd, Rochester – Media Contact: Lindsay Jewett (585) 259-4558
March 12th 5 to 10 p.m. – Buffalo Sabres Spread the Word, awareness table and pledge banner signing; Key Bank Arena, 1 Seymour H Knox III Plaza, Buffalo – Media Contact: Lindsay Jewett (585) 259-4558
March 13th 5:30 p.m. – Genesee County Proclamation, Genesee County Building 1, 15 Main St, Batavia – Media contact: Wade Bianco (585) 343-2783
March 13th all day – No Uniforms at Notre Dame High School, 73 Union St, Batavia – Media contacts: Wade Bianco (585) 343-2783
March 16th 6 to 9 p.m. – Ball of Inclusion, Best Buddies Western NY night of dancing, more details to be announced soon; Arbor at the Port, 1000 N River St Suite 110, Rochester – Media contact: Lindsay Jewett (585) 259-4558
March 18th 7 p.m. – Arc of Genesee Orleans Trustee Awareness Presentation, Arc of Genesee Orleans, 64 Walnut Street, Batavia – Media contacts: Loren Penman (585) 409-6931
March 20th 1 p.m. – Rochester Police Department Press Conference and Banner Signing, more details to be announced soon – Media contact: Lindsay Jewett (585) 259-4558
March 21st – French Road Elementary School Assembly on Inclusion, 488 French Rd, Rochester
March 23rd 4 to 6:30 p.m. – Notre Dame High School Autism Awareness and ANT Fundraiser, 73 Union St., Batavia – Media contact: Loren Penman (585) 409-6931
March 27th at 6:30 p.m. – Community Forum on Autism at Roberts Wesleyan College, Shewan Recital Hall, RWC Cultural Life Center, Apple Ln, North Chili – Media contact: Kym Woodard (585) 594-6807
March 30th 3 p.m. – Notre Dame High School Parent Awareness Event, 73 Union St., Batavia – Media contact: Loren Penman (585) 409-6931
March 30th noon – Special Olympics New York 2019 Canandaigua Polar Plunge, Kershaw Park, 155 Lakeshore Dr., Canandaigua – Media contact: Robyn Armando (518) 588-3459
March 31st noon to 2 p.m. – Charmed by Charity Event at Alex and Ani, in-store inclusive awareness and pledge table; 145 Culver Road Armory, Rochester – Media contact: Lindsay Jewett (585) 259-4558
Friends of the Golisano Foundation that are also promoting education and pledges:
Hope Hall has marked this day with all faculty and staff were invited to take the Pledge. It has promoted the pledge on our social media sites (Facebook & Twitter). Students learned about Spread the Word Inclusion Day today during Community and discussed how they can make a difference today and every day to promote inclusion. All students have been given the pledge form, which they will complete. The pledges will be put on display in the school later this week.
Mary Cariola Children's Foundation – Spreading the Word Inclusion all March long through social media campaign to educate and raise awareness; staff to sign the pledge and to tell what inclusion means to them. Visit their Facebook and Twitter pages.
Starbridge is sharing information about Spread the Word on their social media channels and with their staff. They’ll also include information in their March issue Bridges newsletter, which goes out to several thousand subscribers.