What Will You Find in This Guide?
This guide is designed to help you understand and learn about self-advocacy. Self-advocacy is using your power to advocate for yourself about things that matter to you. You can advocate for others, too. You can help make changes that improve your community.
Self-advocacy includes sharing your wants and needs with people in your life. You can gain and practice leadership skills. Advocating for yourself will help you live the life you choose and fulfill your dreams.
Self-Advocacy History
The history of self-advocacy is important because it shows how far we’ve come. For a long time, people with disabilities were not allowed to make their own choices. They were not treated fairly.
Many people with disabilities used to live in institutions. Institutions are large buildings like hospitals. They were not able to see their family, go to school with other kids, or get jobs in their community.
The self-advocacy movement began in the United States in the 1970s. People with disabilities formed self-advocacy groups. They advocated for their rights and made sure their voices were heard. They joined with others to fight for better laws that would give them more freedom and respect.
In Minnesota, people with disabilities went to the Capitol to advocate for themselves. They asked for changes that let them go to school with other kids, get jobs, and live on their own. Because of their hard work, things got better. But there is still more work to do to make sure that people with disabilities have rights and power.
To learn more about the history of self-advocacy, visit Parallels in Time: A History of Developmental Disabilities.
How to Be a Self-Advocate
It is important to advocate for yourself. You get to communicate about things you like, things you do not like, and things you want to change. You can be a self-advocate by:
- Sharing your story.
- Talking to lawmakers or going to the capitol.
- Going to self-advocacy meetings, conferences, or workshops.
- Understanding yourself and your rights.
- Asking for support or services that you need.
- Making choices that are important to you.
When to Advocate for Yourself
You make sure you live the life you want when you advocate for yourself. You can advocate for yourself when you are:
- In relationships with family members, friends, or romantic partners.
- At school or planning your education.
- Working or looking for a job.
- Deciding where you want to live and what transportation you would use.
- At the doctor’s office or other medical appointments.
- And more!
Self-advocates make sure people with disabilities are respected and treated equally. The self-advocacy saying is, “Nothing About Us Without Us!”
How to Get More Involved in Self-Advocacy
Self-advocacy is a learning process. You can learn about self-advocacy by going to workshops, panels, self-advocacy groups, and more.
The Arc Minnesota supports self-advocacy groups in many parts of Minnesota. A self-advocacy group is a group of people with disabilities who support each other. They advocate for changes they want to see in the community. People with disabilities are the leaders of these groups.
Some of the groups The Arc Minnesota supports are:
- The Self-Advocacy Advisory Committee (SAAC).
- Self-Advocates Minnesota (SAM).
- People First.
- Self-Advocacy Social Hour (SASH).
- Virtual Happy Hour.
- Calling All Self-Advocates (CASA).
To learn more about these groups and their locations, visit The Arc Minnesota Self-Advocate Event Calendar.
Learn More About Self-Advocacy
You can learn more by talking to people who are in self-advocacy groups or by connecting with The Arc Minnesota. You can also explore the resources below.
- The Arc Minnesota Self-Advocacy information
- Future Leaders of Self-Advocacy
- The Arc MN Guide to Creating Your Own Self-Advocacy Group
- Advocating Change Together
- Self-Advocacy Online
Disclaimer
The Arc Minnesota shares information to help and support you. We do our best to keep it correct and up-to-date, but we can’t promise everything will always be complete or accurate. We recommend double-checking information to be sure.
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