Disability EmpowHer Network

We will be closed August 14th to August 23rd. To quote one of the themes of our annual Leadership Retreat this past March, “Relax with Purpose.”

Image Description: The announcement of our upcoming closing the office break with dates and the quote from our annual Leadership Retreat, “Relax with Purpose,” written on a purple sky with the sun going down showing a mountain range on the bottom.

Join us for an evening of tie dye with ROC and ROC+ on August 28 at 5:30pm ET and the Basil Marella Park in Rochester, NY.

Sign up through the link in our bio or here by August 21: https://forms.gle/52rH8Lba9nEoi7WS6

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Our last full day of EmpowHer Camp was filled with wrapping up. Our participants showered, packed, and presented their leader logs.

Another great day at EmpowHer Camp in the books!

Our young leaders are taking over camp completely! They are cooking breakfast, making lunches, and taking charge at dinner.

They also got matched with their mentors today and started planning out their year-long community impact projects! We cannot wait to see all of the incredible work they do over the next year with their mentors helping to guide them 😍

We ended the night with an incredible fireside chat filled with love, Disability Pride, and a lot of laughs 💜

Join us in August for an afternoon of empowerment! Experienced martial artists will demonstrate basic self-defense and we’ll practice our skills hitting some bags and breaking boards. Please be aware that STAR does not travel to Clifton Park. If you are in need of transportation to attend, please let us know as soon as possible and before August 21st.

Image description: A light purple flower with an outline of bricks in the background. There is an a graphic of two arms crossed in an “x” position and green text boxes with the event info

Big shout out to Adirondack Experience for teaching our young leaders about the many different coniferous trees in the area, the history of the lean-tos, and how to make balsam pillows. We are so grateful for their expertise and their willingness to visit us at camp!

Image description: group photo of camp participants and museum staff standing around a model of a lean to.

EmpowHer Camp day 3 was filled with learning new things to help us survive in the wilderness from plant identification to navigation then practiced those skills with a scavenger hunt across camp. As the afternoon turned into evening we wrote thank you cards before chilling by the fire. Special thanks to our friends Adirondack Experience

Image descriptions: (1) two young disabled women hugging (2) a young leader holds up a small sachet to compare to our guest speaker from the Adirondack experience (3) a different young leader looks up at the speaker who has arms stretched wide (4) a young leader writes on a notebook in her lap (5) two young leaders look at each other while talking, they are sitting with books in their lap near a campfire

Day 2 of EmpowHer Camp is in the books!

We started off the day getting colorful with our tie dye and then moved on to our teamwork project of putting up shower tents in the pouring rain 😅

After that we learned about different emergencies and how to be prepared for them by creating our own go bags.

We ended the evening with learning how to make a campfire, cooking a delicious dinner, and enjoying singing and s'mores around the campfire 🔥

We have an exciting lineup of events heading your way this month. Check our social media later this month for more details on these upcoming events, or visit our website calendar to sign up now.

ID: A pink and teal graphic containing information on our upcoming events. The events are as follows: Sunday August 16: Book Club - Virtual 5pm -6:30pm ET. Join us for a discussion on the book The Future is Disabled by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha. Friday August 28: Tie Dye Night - Rochester 5:30-7:30pm Join ROC and ROC+ at the Basil Marcella Park Open Shelter for an evening of tie dye and fun! 925 English Road, Rochester NY 14616. Saturday August 29: Disabled Women’s Defense Class - Albany 1pm - 3pm Join us for an afternoon of empowerment! Experienced martial artists will demonstrate basic self-defense and we’ll practice our skills hitting some bags and breaking boards! 215 Guideboard Rd. Suite 5 Clifton Park, NY 12065