Faith, Disability, and the Fight for a Dignified Safety Net with Rachel Barkley | Let People Prosper Show Ep. 157🎙️

Rachel Barkley’s journey from paralysis to policy reform and what it teaches us about resilience, work, and dignity

Hello Friends!

What happens when your life changes in an instant, and you have to rebuild it from the ground up?

In this week’s Let People Prosper Show, I talk with Rachel Barkley, a policy leader at Alliance for Opportunity and Able Americans, wife, mother, and one of the most resilient individuals I know. After a rare spinal cord tumor left her paralyzed just weeks after giving birth to her first child, Rachel began a long and painful road of recovery—one marked by faith, perseverance, and incremental miracles.

But her story isn’t just one of personal triumph. Rachel now leads state and national efforts to reform the safety net for individuals with disabilities and those facing hardship. She’s championing policies like the One Door Policy to streamline services, shift the conversation from “able-bodied” to work-capable, and ensure the system actually supports human dignity and independence. You can read more about her story here.

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🎯 Key Takeaways

1. Rachel’s Journey Is a Testament to Resilience
   Paralyzed from the shoulders down, Rachel’s recovery has been slow and miraculous—“a millimeter a month”—but marked by deep faith and the support of her husband, family, and community.

2. Faith and Suffering Are Not Opposites
   Rachel shares how her spiritual foundation gave her purpose in adversity—and why suffering often reveals rather than destroys meaning.

3. Recovery Requires More Than Medicine
   From rehab to returning to work, Rachel emphasizes the role of support systems—family, friends, and even policy structures—in making recovery sustainable.

4. Reforming the Safety Net with Dignity
   She advocates for reforms that prioritize work capability and integration, not labels. Programs should serve as launchpads to self-sufficiency, not bureaucratic traps.

5. The One Door Policy
   Rachel outlines this bold reform: a streamlined entry point for accessing services that removes barriers, simplifies case management, and respects people’s time and dignity.

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Rachel’s story reveals what’s possible when faith, perseverance, and policy intersect. She’s not just surviving—she’s leading the way on what a humane, pro-work, dignity-centered safety net should look like. If we genuinely want to let people prosper, we must build systems that expect contribution, support growth, and leave no one behind—not because they’re pitied, but because they’re capable.

To let people prosper, we must:

• Center the safety net around dignity and self-sufficiency

• Replace outdated terms like “able-bodied” with work capable

• Build systems that encourage upward mobility, not dependency

• Simplify support through ideas like the One Door Policy

• Recognize that policy must serve people, not the other way around

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🕰️ Chapters

00:00 – Introduction and Background
03:05 – Rachel's Journey Through Adversity
09:00 – The Impact of Health Challenges on Family
15:00 – The Role of Community and Support
17:46 – Looking Forward: Hope and Future Aspirations
21:47 – Building New Systems and Habits
27:53 – Work Capable vs. Able Bodied
31:44 – The One Door Policy
37:27 – Addressing Disability Policy Challenges
40:34 – The Future of Safety Net Reforms

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🔚 Final Thoughts

Rachel’s experience reminds us that real policy change is most powerful when grounded in real life. A broken safety net system fails everyone, but reform is possible. With leadership, compassion, and courage, we can build a safety net that lifts people up rather than locking them in.

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