Self Advocacy

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Self Advocacy

• A Skill and a Right

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Definition of Self-Advocacy

•  
•  Self-advocacy refers to
•  
• an individuals ability to effectively
  communicate, convey, negotiate or assert his or
  her own interests, desires, needs, feelings and
  rights. It involves making informed decisions
  and taking responsibility for those decisions.
  (VanReusen et al., 1994)
•  
• Self-knowledge is the first step towards
  advocating for your rights. You need to know who
  you are - your strengths, areas of challenge,
  values, and interests before you can truly be a
  self advocate.

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To be a self advocate one needs to

• know self
• know what they need and want
• know how to get what they need want
• communicate in a timely and effective way being
  assertive versus aggressive

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Six success attributes that highly correlate with
self advocacy

• Self awareness
• Being proactive
• Perseverance
• Goal setting
• The presence and use of support systems
• Emotional coping strategies
• Raskind and Goldberg (2005)

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1. Why is it important to include self-advocacy
   skills into my curriculum / our program?
2. How are we going to find time to do that?
3. What would we do?

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Why?

• Students need to learn how to advocate for
  themselves
• at their job
• in the community
• during their school day
• in daily living situations
• with their friends and family
• We need to support and encourage them as they
  learn this critical life skill

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Can your students -

• ask their boss to explain a new task AND show
  them how to do it before they walk away?
• promote their idea among a lot of ideas for a
  Saturday night gathering with friends?
• know when and how to share what they were
  thinking and feeling when there was a huge
  misunderstanding with their group of friends and
  no one is talking?
• problem solve how to get a ride somewhere when
  everyone seems to have other commitments?

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Barriers to Assertiveness/Self-Advocacy

• Feeling quiet and too shy to speak
• Feeling frustrated and ready to explode
• Feeling like I dont know what to do
• Feeling afraid of saying the wrong thing
• Not knowing how someone else will react

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• Wanting to be nice to everybody
• Not wanting to cause a problem
• Not wanting to draw attention to myself
• Thinking that no one will understand me
• Not liking the other person / situation
• enough to try
• Other barriers that you have witnessed?

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What stops students from being their own
advocate?

• Figure out what the barriers are
• Come up with a
• plan to work through
• the challenges, build their
• skills, provide opportunities for supported
  practice and help them overcome their
  resistance/fear.

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Growing Self-Advocacy

• Do your students . . . .
• Know and understand their rights and
  responsibilities
• Know their abilities, needs, gifts, strengths,
  and challenges 
• Know what accommodations they need as well as why
  they are needed
• Know how to effectively communicate their needs,
  ideas, feelings and preferences
• Know who their key people are and how to contact
  them if necessary  
• Know how to ask questions when something is
  unclear or confusing.
•  

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Opportunities for Growth

• How mindful are we, as facilitators of students
  learning and communication skills, in providing
  opportunities for growing their self advocacy?
• Take a minute to share 3 ways you promote self
  advocacy skill development in the natural
  contexts and daily schedules of your students.

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Supporting students to become
self-advocates

• Teach youth about their disability and assist
  them to recognizing their strengths, talents,
  skills and support needs.
• Teach skills such as requesting assistance,
  making choices, expressing an opinion, and
  sharing information.
• Encourage youth to speak up for themselves
  rather than relying on an adult to it (we support
  but not do it for them)

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Step by step, we encourage them to . . .

• Learn how to make informed choices for self
• Identify their needs and wants
• Share information with someone they trust
• Practice what they want to communicate
• Speak for self find their voice first in easy
  situations then in harder ones.
• Not give up if people dont listen the first time
• Celebrate each effort and accomplishment

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Students should know and becomfortable with

• Discussing his / her disability
• What accommodations are helpful, those that are
  not, and why
• Understanding their rights and responsibilities
• Articulating their strengths and challenges
• Discussing what works and doesnt work for them
  in the various environments they may encounter
• Knowing and discussing overall learning style

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How does staff support students to be self
advocates?

• Provide opportunities for students to make
  choices
  
• Encourage assertiveness
• Partner with students to set their own goals
• Allow youth to take risks and make mistakes but
  also facilitate the processing and learning from
  those mistakes

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It is helpful for students to create a Personal
File of pertinent information that can aid them
in self-advocacy

• Some ideas for things to include
• Medications, Pertinent Medical People
• IEP / Transcripts
• Photos of projects, activities, volunteer
  experiences
• Copies of financial aid forms
• Medical (and vehicle) insurance information
• Important addresses phone numbers
• Copy of birth certificate, drivers license
• Social Security card

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Everyone has the right . . .

• Every student, regardless of their disability and
  abilities has the right to communicate what works
  and doesnt work for them, what brings them joy,
  the interests they would like to pursue/continue
  to pursue, what makes them fearful or angry, the
  situations where they like to have a choice or
  some degree of control.
• Our work is to help them strengthen and use their
  communication skills to grow their self advocacy
  muscles so their are better prepared to navigate
  the variety of situations their adult life will
  surely bring.

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• Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage
  is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying,
  "I will try again tomorrow.
• Mary
  Anne Radmacher

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• Questions?
• Ideas?
• Ah-has?