Dear Faithful Readers,
Access Press needs your help. We’ve been with you for more than 28 years, educating, advocating, illuminating, investigating, revealing, solving, entertaining, raging, urging, grieving, celebrating and honoring you and your friends, family, and supporters in our disability community. We’ve been there for you!
Now we need your help to carry on what founder Charlie Smith started more than 330 monthly issues ago. In our February edition, we shared with you our desperate need for financial support. Not everyone has extra dollars to spare, but there are other ways you can help us out. We need you, the innovators, creative thinkers and idea generators, to step forward
Without additional financial support Access Press as readers have known it all these years will cease to exist before the end of 2018. At a time when disability rights are under siege, when supports that keep us living and working in the community are threatened, Access Press is needed now more than ever.
We need to continue to be here for our readers at a time when we need a dedicated source of news that talks about the issues that our community is facing. We all know too well that most of the mainstream media is only interested in the inspirational success stories when disability news coverage is considered. Access Press tells the real story.
If you are one of our advertisers, we thank you. If you patronize one of our advertisers, please thank them for supporting Access Press. If you own a business or are part of a group that should be advertising, why not do so? One great way to support the newspaper is to be an issue sponsor, to spotlight a business, special month or day, or cause.
As a news source, we have to offer every way that you use to find news that is important to you. We need to upgrade our electronic equipment so we can be accessible to you on all your electronic devices, and all the new social media platforms. That takes income. We are writing grants to help us upgrade our website and our print distribution. We want to give you our best product online and in print.
If you know about a technology grant, tell us. If your company has a foundation, tell us whom to talk to and how to apply for a grant. If you have a rich uncle or aunt, give them your best “elevator speech” about Access Press’s long history, and that Access Press is only a few disability newspapers in the country and that’s why they should support Minnesota’s disability community newspaper, financially.
The bottom line is we need your help. Without additional financial support, the newspaper that you have relied on for all these years will cease to exist. We want to be here for you and everyone else in the disability community at a time when we really need a dedicated source of news that talks about the issues that our community is facing.
What are your innovative and creative ideas about how we can continue to bring you news that is timely and relevant to you in this 24/7 news cycle? Is Access Press your primary resource for finding accessible housing, employment, health care, independence, entertainment and civil rights information? We need to hear from you at access@testing.accesspress.org. You can also call Executive Director Tim Benjamin at 651-644-2133 or any board member.
