Looking back on a self-advocacy workshop done for the Council for Disabled Children and Young People’s Conference in February 2022.
I created a workshop for the CDC Young People Conference. The title of the workshop was “How to advocate for yourself: a guide”. It was about teaching the participants to advocate for themselves, and helping them to find ways in which they might do that. I chose this workshop topic because advocacy is important, and self advocacy can be very difficult. Many of us are great at standing up for general injustice, but don’t stand up for ourselves.
There were some technical issues that caused Ciara, my collaborator, to drop out of the call, and I had to do the rest on my own. The workshop itself went well and the participants seemed engaged. I believe the participants left knowing more about advocating for themselves than they did at the beginning. Knowing to start small, and finding those trusted allies can be important first steps to being able to speak up when necessary.
Public speaking about things I am passionate about, such as self advocacy, is one of the reasons I have created Butterfly Hope. I want to help people in all walks of life find the tools and resources they need to succeed, and a big part of that is finding ways they can help themselves. I would definitely do it again.