MAKING A DIFFERENCE
MEET DR. MAYOR HODGES, Improving Accessibility One Act at a Time BY DR. DAROLYN “LYN” JONES AND TENDRA DUFF
Meet Dr. Mayor Treva Hodges. That’s what the good citizens of Charlestown, Indiana call their mayor. Hodges is the city’s first female mayor and the first female mayor in the history of Clark County, one of Indiana’s southernmost counties. One foot over and you are in Kentucky. Hodges is new to politics but not to advocacy. She previously taught at the University of Alabama in Communication Studies, Argumentation, and Debate. She and her husband moved to Charlestown to help care for some of his family members. She finished her Ph.D. in Humanities and Women and Gender Studies at the University of Louisville and was running for mayor at the same time because she was frustrated with missed opportunities to improve Charlestown. Her Ph.D. hooding ceremony coincided with her swearing-in as mayor. But that’s how Dr. Mayor Hodges operates—she always has
32
November 2023
several irons in the fire, and she successfully manages them all. Part of Hodges’s campaign promise was to listen. As soon as she entered office, a grandmother posted on Facebook that she could not access the city’s park with her granddaughter who used a wheelchair because the handicapped parking spot had no lined space to allow her granddaughter to safely exit the vehicle. Someone forwarded the issue to Hodges and she thought, “that’s an easy fix!” She had the town’s facilities manager paint the appropriate crosshatch lines. Problem solved. That one small act snowballed into several others. Improving accessibility in the City of Charlestown became a priority. Hodges immediately began looking at the city with a different perspective and implementing relatively easy modifications that would improve access, including adding new parking spaces that allowed for wheelchair loading and unloading and trading portable toilets at their most used parks with accessible units. When asked why a non-disabled individual would be interested in advocating for the disabled, Hodges said she has always been interested in activism for those who have historically been marginalized. Then her husband suffered a serious injury, and the issue became personal. They found the world to be very inaccessible to his inclusion and participation. Hodges turned a focused eye to Charlestown’s programming for seasonal public events and worked to ensure sensory-specific times and accessible options for the Touch-aTruck, Easter, and Christmas events. She set to work on longer-term changes as well. When completing the city’s Parks Master Plan in 2020/2021
Each summer, the City of Charlestown hosts a Legends for MLB Camp for kids of all skill levels and abilities using one field for those with special needs.
During the Bunny Bash Easter Dash event, a sensory friendly hunt featured eggs placed on cones to make it easier for those in wheelchairs to find eggs.
Mayor Treva Hodges meets with a visitor during the portion of the seasonal Easter egg hunt designed for those with special needs.
Hodges and her team invited a focus group of parents who have children that live with a variety of disabilities. Hodges wanted to ensure that the park’s planning included all children.
