The Wrap: Inevitable Foundation Launches Elevate Collective Awards to Help Disabled Screenwriters
Image Description: Three logos graphics. The logo on the left is for Inevitable Foundation and shows the letters “I” and “F” in bold black text inside two separate blue squares. The logo on the top right 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 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.
By Jolie Lash
Inevitable Foundation, a non-profit aimed at helping dsiabled screenwriters, has launched the Elevate Collective Awards to help mid and upper-level disabled writers.
The awards, part of the Elevate Collective within the Inevitable Foundation, include $5,000 professional development grants aimed at helping disabled writers, allowing them to invest in things like career coaching, professional development, script consultation, work-from-home setups and intellectual property acquisition, per a release. The Foundation plans to award grants on a quarterly basis.
The Elevate Collective will also provide an opportunity for community building, networking opportunities for members, and receive ongoing support from the Inevitable Foundation team. Applications are open at this link.
“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,” Inevitable Foundation co-founders Richie Siegel and Marisa Torelli-Pedevska in a joint statement. “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.”
Additionally on Wednesday, the Foundation announced 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 with the recipient being given 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,” Lydia Storie, associate director of culture change at Caring Across Generations, said in a statement. “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.”
Also announced was the Inevitable Foundation x Humanitas Alumni Award which is also a $5,000 grant. The recipient of that award will 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,” Michelle Franke, executive director of Humanitas, said in a statement.
The Inevitable Foundation aims to break down barriers keeping mid-career disabled screenwriters from reaching their full creative potential. According to a release, disabled persons make up less than 1% of writers behind the screen.
