Changing the Public Attitude towards Disabilities
LA USINA
Organizational Vision
Citizen Base Strategy
How It's Working
Lessons Learned
La Usina challenges the public’s attitude towards people with disabilities by
raising awareness and promoting a society where individuals are valued and respected for their differences. Reflecting on her own experience with a disability, Pellizzari points out that her long road to physical rehabilitation was just one obstacle she had to overcome during her recovery. When she returned to work, her movements supported by canes and braces, Pellizzari remembers getting strange, pitying glances from people in her office and thinking, “I broke my legs but not my brain!” Teaching the public to recognize a person’s talents and abilities, instead of focusing on his or her disability, is the change that La Usina leads in Argentina.
As part of its strategy, La Usina targets the general public with a massive public awareness campaign each year. It also holds workshops for journalists, leaders in business and government, and university students to educate them on issues related to people with disabilities. At the end of 2006, La Usina was named a CBI Winner in Latin America’s Southern Cone for its innovative “RedActivos” project, which aims to commercialize products and services developed by people with disabilities in Argentina. In addition, La Usina partners with 24 regional organizations throughout Argentina that support people with disabilities, sharing best practices, providing resources, and seeking to increase the impact of these organizations in their communities.
La Usina’s Annual Awareness Campaign features advertisements in Argentine print media as well as on radio and television. The advertisements—designed by winners of a nationwide competition—are clever, edgy, and powerful. One such advertisement presents a student carrying books and a walking stick, and asks the public, “Why do we think about a person with a disability and not someone going to study?” Another advertisement features a swimmer racing through a swimming pool, and includes the caption: “Gonzalo Fernandez has Down Syndrome. Could you tell? Neither could the water.”
Cultivate small contributions from many
When Pellizzari describes her organization’s philosophy on tapping into community resources, she phrases it quite simply: “It’s never a question of if but when.” That confidence underscores La Usina’s community-based approach to resource mobilization and has helped the organization achieve a remarkable track record of cultivating small contributions from diverse actors in Argentina.
One need only step into La Usina’s Buenos Aires headquarters to get a feel for the many people and the organizations that join to create La Usina. The office itself, a modest loft in one of Buenos Aires’ commercial districts, is donated to La Usina rent-free, a contribution that saves the organization hundreds of dollars per month. The story of the office’s transformation—from a dark and neglected first-floor “dungeon” to a vibrant workspace—reveals much about the organization and how it operates. Pellizzari’s first visit to the abandoned office was not an encouraging one: “There was no light, no fresh air and the walls were covered with mold and mildew. It was horrible!” To make matters worse, the space was completely inaccessible to people with disabilities, including many of La Usina’s employees and volunteers. “People thought I was crazy,” remembers Pellizzari about those first days. In a matter of weeks, however, the La Usina team had developed a renovation plan with pro-bono support from an architect and long-time friend of one of the volunteers. The challenges did not end there: “We had this great space, knew what we needed to do to fix it, but had no money.” So the team set out to mobilize the necessary resources, appealing to businesses and individuals to join La Usina’s cause while following a rule that Pellizzari describes as fundamental to her organization’s success: “We don’t ask for money,” says Pellizzari, referring to the volunteer work and in-kind donations refurbished the office space.
Today, La Usina’s office is a collage of community contributions and Pellizzari is proud to point out that La Usina “never wrote a single check” to pay for the more than $6,000 worth of improvements. A volunteer contractor widened the bathroom doorway to allow people in wheelchairs to enter. Other groups donated office furniture, equipment, and supplies and a team of volunteers painted the walls using materials provided by a local hardware store. One of the most substantial contributions came from an Argentine metalworks company that installed a platform to create the office’s second floor workspace and conference room—an addition needed to accommodate people with disabilities that would have cost close to US$2,000. When pushed to reveal her organization’s secret to cultivating donations in kind, Pellizzari responds: “We are ambitious and are never afraid to ask.”
Require a shared commitment
The confidence to ask for assistance is just one factor contributing to La Usina’s success in mobilizing community resources. Equally important is Pellizzari’s insistence that every member of the organization, “from the president to the cleaning people,” shares in La Usina’s mission of transforming the community.
According to Pellizzari, this “commitment to change,” is especially important when it comes to members of the board. La Usina’s board is comprised of professionals and academics with a variety of specialties, including accounting, law, business administration, and communications. The board consistently meets every 40 days in Buenos Aires and plays an extremely active role in charting the organization’s strategic direction. Board members are also central figures in La Usina’s resource mobilization efforts: they lead semi-annual planning sessions that focus exclusively on resource development and serve as bridges between La Usina and the segments of the business and educational communities that they represent.
All of La Usina’s resource mobilization efforts begin with the same question, “Who has what we need?” However, the second question—“Who knows someone?”—is far more fundamental to the way the organization operates. When La Usina was founded, Pellizzari turned over her entire address book, which became the start of La Usina’s first contact database. She then required that all of the board members do the same. As Pellizzari sees it, “If the board members are not going to be involved, why are they there?” They are there, she insists, to bring three critical types of resources to the organization: professional contacts, expertise in a field, such as communications, that is critical to La Usina’s work, and access to potential contributors.
Harness outside talent for innovative projects
As much as La Usina focuses on mobilizing resources from the inside
out—counting on board members, employees, and volunteers to leverage their contacts in the community—Pellizzari and her team are also experts in using competitions to channel the creativity of complete strangers.
Nationwide competitions are critical to La Usina’s Annual Awareness Campaigns. In 2005, La Usina launched its first national design competition, calling on advertising students from around the country to create a six-advertisement marketing campaign designed to raise national awareness of people living with disabilities. Close to 1,000 individuals registered on La Usina’s website to download information about the contest, and 53 universities and professional schools joined in the competition. In the end, a panel of judges selected the winning campaign from 47 submissions, which were designed by student teams representing 12 cities and five provinces. Based on the success of the first contest, La Usina held a second competition in 2006 and the reaction was similarly enthusiastic.
How does La Usina generate such a tremendous response? Effective marketing serves a critical role. La Usina mobilized 30 different media outlets to donate advertising space for the competition in 2005, with advertisements appearing in electronic and print media, radio, and television. In addition to generating publicity, however, La Usina carefully selects its panel of volunteer judges—inviting recognized leaders from Argentina’s most influential newspapers and magazines as well as the heads of advertising agencies and design schools—to add an element of prestigious and professional opportunity to its competitions. While gaining exposure to these executives, contest participants know that the winning submission will be showcased around the country as the centerpiece of La Usina’s massive Awareness Campaign, a welcome addition to any resume. Finally, La Usina awards prizes to the contest winner and the runner-ups, with the winner receiving US$1,000 in cash as well as other prizes.
- La Usina estimates that it has mobilized roughly US$400,000 (approximately 70% of the total budget) worth of in-kind donations as part of its first two Annual Awareness campaigns.
- La Usina’s Campaigns were mentioned 177 times in the Argentine news media in 2005 and 158 times in 2006.
- More than 6,000 people receive periodic communications from La Usina, with 470 subscribing to receive information this year alone.
- Over 4,000 people visit La Usina’s webpage each month, up from 400 monthly visitors before the first Awareness Campaign was launched.
- Be ambitious when seeking in-kind donations. According to Pellizzari, resourcefulness is critical: “If one channel doesn’t work out…figure out how to make it work with another.”
- Recruit a strong, active, and professional board. La Usina’s board is comprised of professionals who play key roles in mobilizing resources for the organization.
- Capture creativity with contests and competitions. La Usina saves thousands of dollars each year with its design competitions while putting some of the best creative minds in Argentina to work on its Annual Awareness Campaigns.
- Seize opportunities to strengthen key relationships. By inviting leaders from important media outlets and top advertising agencies to serve as judges in its design competitions, La Usina not only identifies the best advertisement campaigns but also strengthens its ties to organizations that play a vital role in communicating La Usina’s message about people with disabilities.