State DD Agencies Support Self-Advocates

The Envisioning the Future:
Allies in Self-Advocacy Summits - 2011 and 2012

"Nothing about us without us." The voices of self-advocates have been central to the transformation of our service systems to community based services. Self-advocacy is first and foremost peer support - people talking with people who have similar life experiences from which people gain knowledge, ideas, inspiration, encouragement, and personal confidence to better their lives. Self-advocacy is also a movement that advocates for the rights of people and for services that support people participating in the community.

Self-advocates need allies - people who will stand by them, support them and listen to them. This is why the Administration on Developmental Disabilities invited State Intellectual/Developmental Disabilities agencies, state Councils on Developmental Disabilities, State Protection and Advocacy Systems, and the University Centers for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities Education, Research and Service to come to the Envisioning the Future Summits. (www.envision2010.net)

The purpose of the summits was to:

• Assess the status of self-advocacy in each state including support for self-advocacy.
• Develop a plan to strengthen self-advocacy in each state.
• Develop recommendations for action at the national level to strengthen the self-advocacy movement nationally.

State DD directors and their staff participated in the summits held during the past two years in 13 cities throughout the country. State teams, including self-advocates and their allies, attended from each state. Many state teams included the state I/DD director or one of their senior staff, including Lee Price (VA), Jon Weizenbaum (TX), Craig Stenning (RI), Kevin Casey (PA), Jane Gallivan (DE), Laura Nuss (DC), Steve Jordan (NC), Barbara Brent (AZ) and Dr. Jeffrey Okamoto (HI), Alan Ormsby (UT), Julia Holloway (IN), Margaret Zillinger (KS), Alex Bartolic (MN), Kriss Jones (MS), Jerryln London (AL), Shelley Lee (AR), Doris Johnson, (GA), Geoffrey Gross (ME), Charlyss Brandon (MI), Pat Brennan (NJ), Tracy Dufree (NY), Peggy Martin (OH), Katherine Munson (SD), and Courtney Kelley (TN).

TEAM VIRGINIA

 

TEAM NORTH CAROLINA

 

TEAM HAWAII

To see the presentations, plans for the future, and recommendations from each state team, link to envision2010.net/webcasts.php (Philadelphia, Orlando, Detroit, and Denver) or alliesinselfadvocacy.org/stateteams/state-team-presentations-and-plans/ (Baltimore, Honolulu, Chicago, Seattle, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Kansas City, Columbus and Providence).