Advice for empowering self-advocacy

Advocacy

By Grace Blatt, William Gallup and Sean Walker, Good Life Ambassadors/Cuyahoga County Board of Developmental Disabilities (Cuyahoga DD)

People with disabilities belong at the center of the system of services and supports that enable them to live the lives they want to live. This premise is the essence of the personcentered approach — an approach that requires one to advocate for their needs and preferences. While advocacy can be a pathway to meaningful change, it takes training and skills development.

Grace Blatt, William Gallup and Sean Walker have been in Cuyahoga DD’s Good Life Ambassadors role for nearly four years, educating and inspiring other self advocates and the general community.

According to Blatt, “Advocacy is the essential action of making your needs and wants known in order to gain accommodations, understanding and acceptance from others.”

Walker strengthens this definition by reminding us that it includes everybody — people with physical and mental disabilities.

“It’s important to advocate for yourself because there are times when people around you want to help you succeed but either don’t have the confidence to ask you or may forget to ask you,” Blatt says. As a college student, she benefits from others helping her succeed with her educational goals.

For Walker and Gallup, who live independently, leading by example sends a strong message. “Sometimes, we have to set an example and compel others to self-advocate,” Gallup says.

Years of experience teaching others have afforded Blatt, Gallup and Walker important insights into empowering advocacy.

Walker says, “Set little goals within the big goal and then set deadlines; take baby steps." He adds, Use natural supports, too, like family and friends, as long as you’re in the driver’s seat.” Gallup, who’s also a bocce coach, says, “You can do anything you

want to; just put your mind into it and believe in yourself.” • Blatt stresses that advocacy doesn’t just mean asking for your needs to be met. • “Tell others what has worked for you in the past and offer suggestions that people could implement to help you reach your goals,” she says.