Call Me ABLE

A Fund of

Call Me ABLE  was established by Bea and Joe Gaskins to shift the societal paradigm of disability with advocacy, education, and mentorship to help children with disabilities by providing resources that will foster and develop adaptive leadership to thrive in challenging environments. Its vision is to redefine and rethink the perception of disability within our community while empowering our youth to focus on their abilities and self-esteem, through advocacy, education, and mentorship. Call Me ABLE is committed to its core values of collaboration, inclusion, integrity, and leadership.

OUR STORY
It is a love story of a couple meeting and getting married... but this couple is not an ordinary couple. This is how the media would probably describe it: “Able body woman marries disabled-bodied man” but that is not how we define our love. Joseph Gaskins has been a paraplegic for the last thirty-seven (37) years. He is the result of a Friday the 13th misfortune. He was a victim of a hit-and-run driver, who fled the scene and was never apprehended. Joseph Gaskins is a true miracle for overcoming adversity and all of life’s challenges.

Joseph has reimagined and redefined disability to ABILITY. The ABILITY to make a difference and overcome the stigma and perception the world has projected. We want our story to be remembered as the couple that made a difference by reimagining and redefining “disability” and focusing on the “Ability” of our youth.