Pathways to Connection: A Community Giving Project for Campus Accessibility

This summer, in celebration of our 40th anniversary, we’re rolling out an ambitious new phase in our accessibility efforts at the Highlights Foundation: Pathways to Connection: A Community Giving Project for Campus Accessibility.

Through this campaign, we’ll work on a series of paved pathways linking buildings (and people) across our 66-acre campus.

A Commitment to Accessibility

For 40 years, the Highlights Foundation has served as a place where stories grow—from place to place and generation to generation. From our humble beginnings in 1985, we’ve made meaningful changes to the nonprofit we’ve become.

Now, as we enter our next decade of commitment to storytellers and readers, we must navigate new ways to connect our community.  Connection comes in many ways—through communication and inclusivity. We believe in taking thoughtful action to foster inclusivity and safety in our storyteller community. That’s why, over the years, we’ve invested in accessibility in a variety of ways, both online and at our retreat center in Boyds Mills:

• Scholarships for storytellers
• Adding ADA-compliant rooms in our Lodge
• Enhancing technology (closed captioning, PDF readers, audio-visual resources)
• Equipping doorways with threshold ramps and rubber mats
• Increasing outdoor lighting for nighttime visibility
• Securing support for ASL interpreters

To help us move toward inclusivity, we will connect campus with a series of paths over time. Each pathway symbolizes our commitment to connecting all storytellers who visit the Highlights Foundation.