What does it mean to be a self-advocate?
Have you ever been in a situation where the people around you did not allow you to speak for yourself? Have you ever been in a situation where you felt that others were making decisions on your behalf because “you just don’t understand it”?
In order for our “DIP-ovci” to be involved in making decisions about their own lives, we empower them from the moment they enter our programs. The people we work for are encouraged every day to say what they feel and how they see the world around them; what is important to them and what is not.
How does it manifest in everyday work: we ask them to evaluate our work, we ask them what they would like to do, we talk about situations in which they are not sure what to do; for example, about household finances or their own money, and the most important thing is that we empower them to ask questions themselves and choose topics to discuss. The next step is to empower them to lead the groups themselves, as they do “informally” while hanging out, at the beginning and end of the activity, every working day.
Now, we will further empower them for real self-advocacy, so that we can lead self-advocacy groups. In order to emphasize the importance of self-advocacy, we joined the project, Going through Life Together, which is implemented by the CENTER FOR INCLUSION AND SUPPORT IN THE COMMUNITY https://centar-podrske.hr from Pula, with partners the Association for People with Intellectual Difficulties “Golubica” Vukovar, the Association persons with Intellectual Difficulties “Suncokret”, Nova Gradiška and the Association of Persons with Intellectual Difficulties of Istria, from May 1st, 2020. until May 1st, 2022. The project was financed from the European Social Fund.
As part of this cooperation, we also establish formal groups of self-advocates, so that the “DIP-ovci” themselves would be stronger and more ready to take responsibility for deciding on everything that concerns their lives, and so that they could more effectively defend themselves against those whom, in their opinion, make bad decisions on their behalf.
That is why we now have two groups of self-advocates, who will further strengthen their role, both in their family and in the community. Likewise, we are establishing a support group for the parents of our DIP children, who up to now have already carried out activities in the group for psychosocial support and counseling, which is led by our mobile team.
Who is a self-advocate?
Self-advocates are persons with disabilities, intellectual difficulties, or any person who, due to any situation they are in, is in a disadvantageous position, and who speak on their behalf on important issues. They should be informed about all issues in life, ranging from lifestyles, who they will live with, how they should be treated (medically or otherwise), to the question of how to relate to their family or manage their finances. They should have the opportunity to talk about it using their own words, thoughts and perspectives. The environment should provide them with opportunities and support so that they can make decisions about their lives. For several dozen years, the practice of training for “self-advocacy” has been introduced, in order to get closer to the trends of contemporary public policies that were initiated in the 60s of 20th century, through the self-advocacy movement.
In the Republic of Croatia, the first self-advocacy group was founded in 1996 in the “Vjeverica” Club, for adults with intellectual difficulties (within the framework of the then Zagreb Society for Helping Persons with Mental Retardation, which was a member of the Croatian Federation of Associations for Persons with Mental Retardation).
Not long after that, in 1998, self-advocacy groups established at the Association for the Promotion of Inclusion (since 1997) in Zagreb began their work (Škorak, 2006). http://inkluzija.hr.
Today, self-advocacy has developed, and the implementation of the principle of self-advocacy is considered an especially important step for equalizing the opportunities of persons with disabilities, as well as other people who need support and care. Association Samozastupe http://www.samozastupe.hr works precisely in the promotion of this institute of ensuring inclusive communities.
The Association for Self-Advocacy has produced many manuals on topics for self-advocates, and one of them is: https://issuu.com/damyan/docs/samozastupe_osoba_s_intelektualn
Udomljavanjem naših ukrasno-uporabnih predmeta sudjelujete u provedbi naših programa za mlade s teškoćama u razvoju i psihosocijalnom funkcioniranju. Mi ćemo vam zato pokloniti jedan ili više predmeta koje smo sami napravili.
