Our Story

NextGen Advocacy Arkansas didn’t start as NextGen. It started as The Morris Youth Foundation, which our founder, William E. Morris, launched back in February 2015. For nearly a decade, the organization empowered young people and built pathways for leadership development. But as the years went on, William kept hearing the same thing in conversations with parent advocates, disability governmental bodies, and self-advocates across the state:

Arkansas needed something different.

Not another nonprofit that talked a big game about empowerment while keeping all the decision-making power with people who didn’t have disabilities. Not another well-meaning initiative that treated self-advocates like clients instead of leaders. Arkansas needed an independent, self-advocate-led organization that wasn’t afraid to call out broken systems and fight for real change.

So William did what leaders do. He evolved the vision. The Morris Youth Foundation became NextGen Advocacy Arkansas, and the mission got sharper, bolder, and unapologetically focused on self-advocacy.

This rebrand wasn’t just a name change. It was a declaration: We’re done asking for permission.

What Makes Us Different

We’re Independent

Unlike service providers who answer to state contracts and Medicaid billing structures, we answer to our members and the broader disability community. That independence means we can critique systems, push for policy reform, and center the voices of people with disabilities without worrying about losing funding or approval from the people we’re holding accountable.

We’re Member-Driven

Service providers treat people as clients. We treat people as members, leaders, and changemakers. You’re not here to receive services. You’re here to build power, shape policy, and transform the systems that impact your life.

We Operate on a Civil Rights Model

Medicaid-funded services operate on a medical or support model focused on individual care plans. We operate on a civil rights and empowerment model focused on collective power, policy change, and self-determination. We recognize that people with disabilities are the foremost experts on their own lives, and we structure everything we do around that truth.

We Answer to the Right People

Service providers answer to state agencies and managed care organizations. We answer to our members. That accountability structure keeps us focused on what actually matters: the needs, priorities, and voices of people with disabilities.

Our Vision for Arkansas

We’re not just building an organization. We’re building a blueprint for what disability advocacy can look like when self-advocates are actually in charge.

Here’s what that looks like:

• A pipeline of self-advocate leaders serving on state boards, commissions, and task forces
• Policy recommendations grounded in lived experience and backed by data
• Coalitions with other advocacy organizations, legal aid groups, and civil rights networks
• Public education campaigns that shift how people think about disability
• Transparent accountability systems that hold state agencies to their promises

• Proof that people with disabilities can lead complex organizations, drive policy change, and build sustainable infrastructure

We’re making Arkansas a national model. And we’re doing it by centering the people who’ve been left out of every major decision affecting their lives.

Who We Serve

Anyone with a disability who’s ready to stop asking for a seat at the table and start building their own.

Membership is open to self-advocates across disability types, age groups, geographic regions, and cultural backgrounds. We actively recruit for diversity because we know that real change requires voices from every corner of the community.

Members shape our programmatic priorities, contribute their expertise, and serve as ambassadors for the mission. They participate in advocacy campaigns, leadership development programs, policy working groups, and public education initiatives.

This isn’t a nonprofit you join and forget about. This is a movement you help build.

Our Commitment

We believe expertise comes from lived experience, not a résumé or a degree. We prioritize the voices of people who’ve navigated broken systems, faced discrimination, and fought for dignity. We create space for leadership development, policy education, and community organizing so that self-advocates can shape the future of disability rights in Arkansas.

We’re building something that’s never existed in this state before: a truly independent, member-driven advocacy organization led by and for people with disabilities.

And we’re not backing down.