New Year, New Advocacy Goals: SAU1's Dreams for 2024

January 3, 2024 | by sau1admin

With the start of a new year, the professional self advocates here at SAU1 like to sit down and brainstorm the types of advocacy we would like to focus on in the new year. All of our advocacy projects are centered around our mission which is, "To support the self advocacy of people with disabilities for positive impact in our communities and in people’s lives.”

Keeping our mission in mind, our Power Board came up with three main dreams they have for advocacy in the new year. These dreams are:

• Getting people together to make change happen.
• Fighting for people’s rights.
• Helping health care professionals to better support people with disabilities.

We also asked our professional self advocates to share ideas they have for projects to focus on in 2024. These were some of the ideas:

• Teaching kids about disability diversity
• Working with first responders, police, and health professionals to help them build skills working with people with disabilities
• Disability history for the broader public
• Financial planning for people with disabilities
• Everyday health and wellness
• Loneliness and forming friendships
• Mental health
• General life skills
• Training for providers by sharing what can self advocates teach them
• Making things like service definitions/descriptions easier to understand
• Self advocates mentoring other self advocates, one on one (called peer to peer supports)
• Housing for those with disabilities, including accessible housing
• Further education for those with disabilities, including funding and accessibility
• How to spot/protect yourself from abuse in the disability community
• Help advocating for direct support services you're eligible for
• Working with government agencies to create change within government disability programs

We are always open to new ideas and opportunities. If you have ideas or possible opportunities for our organization, you can connect with us or join our virtual or in person disability advocacy events for free to speak up and have your voice be heard! See our advocacy in action and be part of the conversation in 2024!