Aurora Foundation

The Aurora Foundation of Southern Arizona, Inc is the only 501(c)(3) corporation in Southern Arizona that exclusively advocates for justice for all disabled people. AFSA Inc works to educate and influence policymakers to take positions on legislation that advance full inclusion, equity, and access for the largest and most marginalized minority group in our nation.

Our work is important, for we live in an era when the talents, skills, and strengths of all people are needed to make positive differences our society, economy, culture, and politics. Achieving disability justice begins with a realistic and more accurate understanding of disability. Millions of people have a physical, mental, cognitive, or sensory limitation - ranging from slight to severe. Yet, it is not one’s limitations that disable. Rather, it is physical environments with built-in impediments to inclusion and equitable access to freedom of movement that disable. It is negative attitudes, primitive beliefs, and stigmas aimed at the idea of ‘disabilities’ that marginalize and disable people with limitations.

It is our vision: We want a just and welcoming society in which people with disabilities are fully included in all aspects of daily living, treated with equity and dignity, and empowered with access to abundant opportunities enabling them to achieve their potential.

It is our mission: The Aurora Foundation of Southern Arizona advances justice for people with disabilities through programs and initiatives that enable them to determine their goals, enhance their skills, create the lives they choose and to move those without disabilities toward embracing a community where human diversity and complexity are welcomed and a society where labels of disability become irrelevant.