The sixth annual Building Inclusive Community Conference (BICC) will be held at SC on Saturday, Feb. 7 from 9 a.m to 1:30 p.m. An expected 200 attendees, including teachers, students, and other community members, will partake in two rounds of workshops led by educators covering a wide range of social justice issues and resources within the community to encourage an inclusive and empathetic culture, ending with a pizza and salad lunch. 

One highlight will be a panel discussion on accessibility and caregiver emotional abuse featuring Ms. Wheelchair Illinois and LT alumnus Dr. Carrie Mulderink ‘09.

“Where I live right now, with my mom in a condo in Indian Head Park, there is no access to public transportation,” Mulderink said. “For years after my spine surgery that left me in a really tough position where I couldn’t get a job, [I] couldn’t really get around.”

Ms. Wheelchair America is a program where accomplished women with physical disabilities are selected through an application process to perform advocacy work, speaking at various events across their state. Mulderink has a master’s degree in Speech Communications and a PHD in Intercultural Communication, which she teaches at Trinity Christian College.

“Right now we’ve really been engaging lots of educators from our community and our theatre districts to come as well, so it’s been really beautiful to see how people come together to learn and connect with each other,” LT Director of Student Equity and Belonging Jennifer Rowe said.

Mulderink, who graduated from LT in 2009 and was a member of the LION Newspaper student staff, found out about the BICC from Rowe, and she reached out to the school to speak at the event. Her platform topics of wheelchair-accessible transportation for all and fighting caregiver emotional abuse stem from her own experiences. When she was a student at the University of New Mexico, her caretaker engaged in emotionally abusive stalking behaviors, she alleges.

“I know I’m not the only person with a physical disability who suffers from caregiver abuse,” Mulderink said. “She’s still a free person, and she’s still a caregiver, and I find that really troubling.”

The conference will open with keynote speaker and Illinois Teacher of the Year Victor Gómez, accompanied by performances by LT Steppers, Bailando Con Todos, and poet Catherine Cook. 

Other workshops that will take place include “Unvarnished: Housing Discrimination in the Western United States,” “But What Can I Do? How to Actively Develop an Inclusive Mindset,” and “Developing LGBTQ+ Inclusive Curriculum.” The “Elder/Wisdom Circle,” where participants listen to community elders sharing challenges they have faced, is a personal favorite of Rowe’s, she said.

“Really, [the conference is] coming out of the pandemic, and the impact and the social reckoning we had with the killing of George Floyd,” Rowe said.

The first BICC conference was held virtually in 2020 due to the pandemic, before transitioning to an in-person conference the year after.

“It’s a nice way to highlight some of the work our teachers are doing at LT,” Rowe said.

The conference will be collecting donations for the homeless shelter BEDS PLUS and the La Grange Public Library’s Care Pantry. Essential personal items they will be accepting include undergarments, socks, and personal hygiene products. Further information and a link to register for the free event can be found on its page on the LT website.