Here are some quotes from the recent The Art of Advocacy show.
Parents can not only advise policymakers, parents can BE policymakers.
Charmaine Thaner
When you're starting your advocacy journey always share your story and make it personal.
Courtney Hansen
Don't advocate alone. You want either other parents involved or you have state leaders or other group leaders like the Arc or Developmental Disability Council behind you.
Courtney Hansen
It doesn't take somebody being politically savvy. It just takes them sharing their story and being willing to step out of their comfort zone and tell people what needs to happen. You're seeing it around you. You know, what the issues and problems are. So share that with people that don't understand, that aren't a part of the disability community.
Courtney Hansen
We're emphasizing the parent voice right now, but we also want to look at our children and know we are modeling advocacy. We want our children to have those self advocacy skills. We need to at a certain point to have our children's voice be the focus.
Charmaine Thaner
I would tell people to get to know your rep's aides because oftentimes they are the ones that are really shaping legislation. They're helping draw these bills. They're the gatekeepers really. If you can get to know them and know their email, their phone numbers and reach out they'll help you set up meetings and talk to your state Representative.
Courtney Hansen
On my website, I've written about how you can introduce a bill like this specifically on organ transplant discrimination. A lot of people don't know that it even exists, but there are people with disabilities that are being turned away for organs because of their disability.
Courtney Hansen
There is inclusion happening in preschool in some places in Washington state. Many parents don't even know their child was supposed to be with typical peers and that's where they're supposed to start.
Courtney Hansen
Policy making and advocacy in general is a marathon, not a sprint.
Courtney Hansen
Parents can go to their State Department of Education website and sign up for newsletter to get updates on state rules, and training opportunities. The newsletters are generally written for the educators. But you get so many good tips in there and find contacts you can network with.
Charmaine Thaner
The trails blazed by parents can become overgrown very quickly. We must be persistent in our advocacy.
Charmaine Thaner
We must become marketers of inclusion.
Charmaine Thaner
Michael Ramos, a special ed director in Arizona speaks about how we need to frame our message differently according to the group of people we're talking to. For example, if you're talking to school board members, what are they most concerned about? Sometimes it's budget and what the bottom line is, or it's compliance, is our school district in compliance with the laws. Then you can frame your talking points around
those issues that inclusion does not cost more, that it benefits all students. The importance of being compliant with what IDEA says as far as least restrictive environment.
Charmaine Thaner
We need to widen our circle of allies, we need to look at bringing community members that support inclusive environments and parents of typical kids. So we're not seen as this special interest group. This is an education concern for the whole district.
Charmaine Thaner
We have to advocate for our children constantly at the IEP table and so this is kind of taking it to a whole new level and how can you affect change for other people.
Courtney Hansen
Just as kids have different learning styles, so do teachers, administrators, school board members. Many times we send people articles and if they are more of a linguistic learner that is helpful, but some people might want a podcast that they can just listen to in the car on their way to work.
Charmaine Thaner
