{"id":499377,"date":"2026-02-25T21:38:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T21:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/499377\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T21:38:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T21:38:11","slug":"calgary-disability-advocacy-group-shuts-down-1-year-after-province-cuts-funding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/499377\/","title":{"rendered":"Calgary disability advocacy group shuts down 1 year after province cuts funding"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A disability advocacy group in Calgary is shutting its doors this week \u2014 one year after the Alberta government axed its funding.<\/p>\n

For 28 years, Disability Action Hall has given disabled Calgarians a place to connect, share their stories and fight for change.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But due to financial challenges, its parent organization, SCOPE Society of Alberta, announced<\/a> Friday will be the hall’s last day of operations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all feeling a big loss,\u201d said Colleen Huston, coordinator of Disability Action Hall.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is just so much benefit to the community when you have a dedicated group of individuals who are honoured for their lived expertise to inform policy, to critique, to be an incubator for ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ADisability Action Hall members and friends celebrating Red Shirt Day in 2024, to honour National AccessAbility Week. (Submitted by Colleen Huston)<\/p>\n

Huston said the hall has been running on emergency funding \u2014 made up partially by community donations and remaining money from SCOPE \u2014 for the past year.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because in early 2025, the provincial government decided to end its longtime funding contract<\/a> with Disability Action Hall more than a year before it was set to expire, as it did for two other disability advocacy organizations in Alberta.<\/p>\n

A provincial spokesperson told CBC News it\u2019s unfortunate that the group has decided to cease operations, but said the landscape around disability support has changed since the hall\u2019s inception.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere have been significant changes to disability services and supports since they were established, including the establishment of the Office of the Advocate for Persons with Disabilities through the Advocate for Persons with Disabilities Act,\u201d said Amber Edgerton, press secretary for Assisted Living and Social Services Minister Jason Nixon.<\/p>\n

Edgerton said no cuts have been made to direct services, and the province is now focused on funding organizations that allocate resources directly to disabled Albertans and their families.<\/p>\n

Huston, who has been working with Disability Action Hall for 25 years, said she\u2019s grateful for the Alberta government\u2019s support over the decades. Their funding allowed members to focus on their self-advocacy work.<\/p>\n

But Huston disagrees with the message the province is sending.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a necessity. It\u2019s an essential service. It\u2019s no different than providing one-to-one support for persons with disabilities,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Longtime member Mary Salvani said the community made a big difference in her life.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I first came, I was ashamed of being disabled,\u201d Salvani said. \u201cBut it taught me that it\u2019s OK to be disabled and it\u2019s OK to speak up for what you need, not just what your friends and family need.\u201d<\/p>\n

Salvani, who joined the group in 2010, said she\u2019s angry about the closure and she feels like the voices of disabled people are being silenced.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I think most of us refuse to be silent,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Disability Action Hall is holding a final celebration on Thursday \u2014 one day before the group is set to shut down for good.<\/p>\n

Huston said its legacy will live on through the change it helped to create, including Calgary\u2019s low-income bus pass<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":499378,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194293],"tags":[49,2798,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-499377","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-calgary","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-calgary","10":"tag-canada"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=499377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499377\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/499378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=499377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=499377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=499377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}