The Diaspora Times: Inevitable Foundation Launches Elevate Collective To Empower Disabled Screenwriters; Teams With Caring Cross Generations And Humanitas

Image Description: Three logos graphics. From L to R: The logo for Inevitable Foundation shows the letters “I” and “F” in bold black text inside two separate blue squares. The next logo shows the outline of 2 birds, one larger and one smaller inside a red circle drawn in red. Next to the image “Caring Across Generations” is written in red, capital letters. The next logo on the bottom right shows the letter “H” in bold grey text with two orange rectangles inside. Below, “Humanitas: Changing the world one story at a time” is written in grey capital letters.

Inevitable Foundation, which bolsters disabled screenwriters, has announced the launch of Elevate Collective.

The program features Elevate Collective Awards, $5,000 professional development grants that help mid- and upper-level disabled writers invest in career coaching, professional development, script consultation, work-from-home setups and intellectual property acquisition. Elevate Collective also offers community building and professional networking opportunities for members, in addition to ongoing support from the Inevitable Foundation team.

The new program will support dozens of disabled screenwriters annually, and Inevitable Foundation plans to award grants on a quarterly basis. Applications are now open at inevitable.foundation/elevate.

“We are thrilled to launch Elevate Collective and provide mid- and upper-level disabled screenwriters targeted support, education, connections and financial resources to level-up their careers. We built Elevate Collective based on a year and a half of learnings from running our Fellowship program. Elevate Collective is the latest addition to the ecosystem we are building to empower disabled writers, which also includes our Concierge service for creative executives and showrunners, the Disability is Diversity campaign, and our Screenwriting Fellowship.” said Inevitable Foundation co-founders Richie Siegel and Marisa Torelli-Pedevska in a joint statement.

Inevitable Foundation also unveiled two additional Elevate Collective Awards in partnership with Caring Across Generations and Humanitas.

The Inevitable Foundation x Caring Across Generations Care Award will offer a $5,000 professional development grant and the recipient will also gain access to ongoing script and development consulting services with the Caring Across Generations team.

“Care is a crucial part of all of our lives, and it’s time to normalize that idea onscreen,” saidLydia Storie, Associate Director of Culture Change at Caring Across Generations, who leads the organization’s work within the entertainment industry. “We are connecting disabled people and others with lived care experiences to Hollywood in order to change the stories we tell about aging, illness and disability. Partnering with the Inevitable Foundation on this Elevate Award is the perfect alignment of our respective missions.”

The Inevitable Foundation x Humanitas Alumni Award recipient will offer a $5,000 professional development grant and the recipient will also gain access to virtual and in-person Humanitas events and workshops, as well as tickets to the 2023 Humanitas Prizes.

“Humanitas champions projects that explore the human condition in a nuanced and meaningful way, which can only be done effectively when programming slates are diverse in terms of subject matter and inclusivity behind and in-front of the camera. We believe deeply in the Inevitable Foundation’s message that ‘there is no diversity, equity, and inclusion without disability’ and are honored to partner with them on an Elevate Collective Award benefitting an alum of our New Voices Fellowship and College Screenwriting Awards programs,” shared Michelle Franke, Executive Director of Humanitas.

Disabled people make up 20%+ of the population but represent less than 1% of writers behind the screen. The access, relationship and opportunity barriers holding the community back—for example, it’s 2x more likely for a disabled person to be unemployed and live in poverty—need to be broken down. Through Elevate Collective and their other programs, Inevitable Foundation is working to close this disability representation gap in film and television.