Rachel Freund
1959 - 2013
Rachel also worked for the Pennsylvania Mental Health Consumers Association. Beginning in the early 2000s, she became “an organizer in the mental health/disability community, working on civic engagement and policy advocacy.” Rachel met fellow voting rights activist and attorney Paul O’Hanlon while they were both doing work for the Disability Voting Coalition of PA, which started in 2004.
The DVC is dedicated to securing the right to vote for people with disabilities through voter registration and access to voting centers so that people can fully participate as citizens and have a voice in the political arena.
In addition to her work as the Director of Community Outreach at Mental Health America of Allegheny County (now Mental Health America of Southwestern PA), Rachel also dedicated her time to providing voting access to people within the mental health community, eventually expanding to people with disabilities. She generated her own funding through foundations, she had to find non-traditional (non-government) funding sources as this work was considered political. She began “Let Our Voices Be Heard” in 2003, this was a conscious raising effort at first for people in group homes and state institutions in order to have them register to vote and to educate them on the importance of voting and their power as a voting bloc to advocate for change. She brought voting machines like the one donated to train people on how to vote and she trained grassroots leaders and created a network for people with disabilities. This was a community organizing model where leaders in various disability communities were trained and educated to lead in their particular community and meet with other communities in order to increase voter registration and civic engagement. Rachel also organized multiple bus trips to Harrisburg in which Western Pennsylvanians with disabilities and within the mental health community had opportunities to advocate for issues that held importance to them. As a result of these efforts, hundreds of Western Pennsylvanians within the mental health community and with disabilities registered to vote. A particular focus of her advocacy were people within the mental health community residing in personal care homes. Rachel was instrumental the passage of a legislative bill to increase the personal needs allowance of people within the mental health community residing in personal care homes. She was also committed to getting people in homes integrated as fully participating citizens. Rachel worked closely with fellow activist lawyer Paul O’Hanlon for the Disability Rights Network of Pennsylvania. They also advocated for voting machines that were fully accessible to people with a variety of disabilities, a fight which continues. Rachel passed away at age 54 in 2013 after a battle with colon cancer. She is credited with playing a large role in getting people with disabilities registered to vote in Allegheny County, increasing the cash supplements to low-income personal care home residents and organizing a vast network of disability voting rights activists.
