Disability Justice Starts With Community.
Holding Hope, Celebrating Resilience, Embracing Every Ability.
Ashby Family
is a nonprofit organization serving Clark and Cowlitz counties, dedicated to supporting individuals with visible and invisible disabilities. Through culturally responsive programs, wraparound resources, and real human connection, we help people live more fulfilling, fuller lives. Whether you’re here to get support, give back, or join the movement, we’re glad you found us.
We All Belong Somewhere That Sees Us.
Where Disability Justice Meets Human Dignity
No matter what brought you here, we’re glad you came.
Ashby Family serves individuals with visible and invisible disabilities across Clark and Cowlitz counties, offering real support for real life. Through culturally rooted programs, emergency resources, and connection that doesn’t fade, we help people live with more autonomy, more confidence, and more joy.
Where Disability Meets Dignity and Belonging.
Come find support, make a difference, or be part of something rooted in real care.
Ashby Family Creates Space for Every Story
We support individuals with visible and invisible disabilities across Clark and Cowlitz counties through wraparound care, advocacy, and community connection. From resource navigation to joyful programs that build confidence and community, we’re here for the full journey.
Everyone Deserves to Feel Like They Belong.
Ashby Family Builds Programs Around Real People, Not Labels
Ashby Family
We work shoulder-to-shoulder with people navigating visible and invisible disabilities, offering support, tools, and safe spaces that honor each person’s full humanity. Through direct services and deep community care, we stand for inclusion, not assumptions.
Start Where You Are. We’ll Meet You There.
Support, Care, and Community Without Judgment or Prerequisites
Ashby Family
Ashby Family is a disability justice nonprofit rooted in the truth that people are not problems to solve. We create pathways forward through wraparound services, peer support, advocacy, and love, especially for those who’ve felt overlooked or misunderstood.
For Every Mind That’s Been Misunderstood, We Make Room.
Because No One Should Navigate Disability Alone
Ashby Family
Ashby Family walks alongside individuals and families impacted by visible and invisible disabilities. Through culturally aware programs and real connection, we help people feel safer, stronger, and more included, wherever they are in their journey.
Programs That Build Confidence
Connection, and Independence
Ashby Family programs are designed to equip individuals with tools they can carry into daily life and create real pathways to connection.
LEAD Mentorship Program
Our signature program (Learn, Explore, Access, Demonstrate) blends life skills education with hands-on community integration. From healthy cooking to financial literacy, nature walks to college visits, LEAD helps participants gain confidence, build relationships, and demonstrate growth.
BRCH – Benefit Resource & Connection Hub
Our Benefit, Resource & Connection Hub provides emergency relief for everything from nourishing meals and phone repairs to hygiene products, scholarships, and referrals to vital mind & wellness support.
Community Engagement Service and Respite Services
In partnership with the Department of Social & Health Services (DSHS) and Clark County, we support individuals with visible and invisible disabilities through community outings, integration planning, and personal goal development.
Ashby Family Activity Center
Explore monthly activities and workshops, LEAD & Mentorship cohort education topics, social outings, community resource discovery, and meaningful opportunities to engage in the community.
Respite Services
We give caregivers the break they rarely get, while keeping their loved ones safe, engaged, and supported in our Activity Center. Sometimes a few hours of peace changes everything.
A group of participants in a kitchen, smiling and wearing hairnets and aprons as they engage in a cooking activity together.
Programs That Build Confidence
Connection, and Independence
Ashby Family programs are designed to equip individuals with tools they can carry into daily life and create real pathways to connection.
LEAD Mentorship Program
Our signature program (Learn, Explore, Access, Demonstrate) blends life skills education with hands-on community integration. From healthy cooking to financial literacy, nature walks to college visits, LEAD helps participants gain confidence, build relationships, and demonstrate growth.
BRCH – Benefit Resource & Connection Hub
Our Benefit, Resource & Connection Hub provides emergency relief for everything from nourishing meals and phone repairs to hygiene products, scholarships, and referrals to vital mind & wellness support.
Community Engagement & Inclusion Services
In partnership with the Department of Social & Health Services (DSHS) and Clark County, we support individuals with visible and invisible disabilities through community outings, integration planning, and personal goal development.
Ashby Family Activity Center
Explore monthly activities and workshops, LEAD & Mentorship cohort education topics, social outings, community resource discovery, and meaningful opportunities to engage in the community.
Respite Services
We give caregivers the break they rarely get, while keeping their loved ones safe, engaged, and supported in our Activity Center. Sometimes a few hours of peace changes everything.
A group of participants in a kitchen, smiling and wearing hairnets and aprons as they engage in a cooking activity together.
How you can Get Involved
Volunteer
Want to lend a hand at an event or share your skills at our Activity Center? We welcome kindhearted helpers. Background checks and short training ensure safety and alignment.
Donate
Your gift helps someone afford a bus pass, a fresh meal, or the dignity of a working phone. Choose one-time or monthly options. All donations are tax-deductible.
Partner With Us
Are you a local organization, foundation, or community leader looking to collaborate?
Let’s talk.
Email info@ashbynonprofit.org to connect.
Born From Silence, Built On Connection
Our founders, Michele and Michael Cruse, built Ashby Family out of lived experience.
Michele watched her father struggle from a complexity of disabilities. In her home and community, having a disability carried a deep stigma. He never talked about his dyslexia or bipolar disorder. He suffered in silence. And it wasn’t until after he had passed that Michele understood the heaviness that he must have carried.
That silence sparked something.
Participants attentively listen to a presenter in a classroom setting, with a green presentation screen titled 'Run of Show' displayed behind her.
What if there had been a space where her father was seen? What if support wasn’t buried in bureaucracy or weighed down by judgment?
Ashby Family is that space.
We Support The Whole You.
We serve people living at the intersections of disability, race, poverty, and isolation. Because needs don’t come one at a time, and neither does identity.
Many of the people we walk beside live with more than one diagnosis, challenge, or invisible struggle. The ripple effect of stigma, lack of resources, and systemic barriers can hold someone back from even the simplest daily life. We’re here to change that.
An older man and a younger woman sit closely together, reading from an open book in a warm, focused learning environment.
Join Our Team
Every day, we have the chance to lift someone up, and that starts with you. If you’re driven by kindness and a desire to make life better for others, we’d love to welcome you into our family.
Our Community Partners
Get in Touch
Let’s connect! Reach out anytime. We’re just a message away.
