We build mutual aid efforts, care webs, and direct community support that meet immediate needs and strengthen collective resilience.
Direct care is not charity. It is survival. It is solidarity. It is community.
Across the South, disabled people face underfunded public systems, long waitlists for services, inaccessible healthcare, and unstable support networks. For many, formal systems fail to meet basic needs.
In response, disabled communities have built care webs. These are networks of mutual aid, shared resources, transportation support, financial assistance, and direct community care that allow people to live with greater stability and connection.
New Disabled South invests in and supports these networks. We recognize that care is political. Who receives care, who provides it, and who is denied it are shaped by race, geography, income, and disability status.
Our work centers collective support rather than institutional control.
What New Disabled South Is Doing
Coordinating mutual aid efforts that provide direct support to disabled people across the South.
Building care webs that connect community members to one another for transportation, food access, financial support, and crisis response.
Supporting direct care workers and advocating for fair wages, safer working conditions, and policies that strengthen home and community based care.
Hosting community engagement events that deepen relationships and build long term solidarity.
Investing in research and policy solutions that strengthen public care infrastructure without relying on institutionalization.
Direct care is about keeping people in community, not pushing them into systems that isolate and control.
By The Numbers
1 in 4
Adults in the United States live with a disability
Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
4+ million
People receive Medicaid home and community based services nationwide
Source: Medicaid Home and Community Based Services enrollment data
100K+
People are on Medicaid waiver waitlists in some Southern states
Source: State Medicaid waiver program reports
10+ years
Average wait time for certain Medicaid waiver services in parts of the South
Source: State level Medicaid waiver data and reporting
