Personal Empowerment Workshops
- Values that Motivate!
- Wanted: New Leaders
- My Choice, Your Decision
- Vision for the Future
- I Can Speak for Myself!
- Declarations of Independence: Self-Advocates Speak Out
- Know Your Rights: Disability Laws that Affect Our Lives
1. Values that Motivate!
Join Advocating Change Together for a participatory exercise and discussion on the values of self-advocacy: what we believe in, what is important to us, and how we put our values into action. When we encounter challenges, our values help us identify the best course of action. Create a personal collage telling the world what you stand for (and won't stand for!) Explore how values change over time. Identify the values you will draw upon most to do the work that needs to be done in self-advocacy. See how we create social change by using our values as the foundation for the work we do.
2. Wanted: New Leaders
Can you imagine a better world? Are you committed to working with others to get there? Do you see potential in each person? If so, you're one of the leaders we need in the self-advocacy movement. Please join self-advocates and allies for a lively discussion and participatory exercises focusing on leadership. With a range of activities to include everyone, we'll explore the meaning of leadership, learn how we can each lead, and gain inspiration from real leaders in self-advocacy and social change.
3. My Choice, Your Decision
This Advocating Change Together workshop uses the acclaimed talents of Minneapolis-based Interact Theatre Company to illustrate (through video) the often hilarious differences between new fads in providing services to people with disabilities and what people really want for themselves. This brilliant video skit uses humor to uncover our most basic prejudices and common mistakes.
Participatory exercises bring you through the ABCs of understanding choices and making decisions.
- Learn how to set goals, make decisions, and work through conflict
- Break down the barriers between providers and consumers, professionals and clients
- Practice skills needed to get what you really want
- Practice skills to be more assertive at work
4. Vision for the Future
What will life be like for people with disabilities 25 years from today? Join Advocating Change Together for a fun-filled session working in groups to create News of the World headlines for the year 2025.
- Share ideas for how to make our vision for the future a reality
- Laugh with others as you fill in the headlines on a giant (3' x 2') newsprint
- Learn that to create the world we want and deserve, we need vision, skills, and commitment
5. I Can Speak for Myself!
Assertive communication is a foundation of self-advocacy. "Speak up. Say what you think and what you need while respecting the other person." This workshop provides a simple set of exercises to practice the skill of assertiveness. Participants also learn the skill of how to recognize assertive behavior, and how it differs from passive and aggressive behavior. These simple and engaging exercises -- including role play and body language practice -- can be done many times with the same group, as you work together to empower each other with the skills of assertiveness.
6. Declarations of Independence: Self-Advocates Speak Out
This workshop features a powerful four-minute video in which ten self-advocates proclaim some of their deepest values concerning disability, civil rights and living with dignity. As self-advocates respond to the question, "What values are most important to you," viewers will be both uplifted and challenged.
7. Know Your Rights: Disability Laws that Affect Our Lives
This workshop is about rights. There are many rights that everyone should have. For example, everyone should have the right to be treated with dignity, or the right to decent housing. On the other hand, there are the rights that we do have. As US citizens, we have many rights that are protected by laws. We need to know what these legal protections are. Only then can we demand our rights with enough power to get them.
In this workshop, participants will become familiar with the three main disability rights laws, and notice how these laws affect our society. Participants will practice applying these laws to hypothetical as well as actual situations in their lives.