INTRODUCING OUR NEW NEWSLETTER FOR, BY AND ABOUT LOCAL SELF ADVOCACY GROUPS
This newsletter is for, by, and about local self-advocacy groups across New York State. Did you know there are over 150 local self-advocacy groups in New York State registered with SANYS?
Each issue will feature a Group Spotlight that can include a news story, photo, poem or essay, accomplishment, or struggle that a local self-advocacy group or member wants to share. We will pick one feature each month — we want to feature you!
We will also share excerpts from the new All About Groups book that our GrassRoots Organizing Project (GROP) field assistants and coordinators are working on. The older version of the book is on our website: HERE.
Stories are an important part of the self-advocacy movement. Each issue will feature a story of speaking up, starting with stories from the early days. Do you have a story to tell or know someone who does and needs help writing or sending it? Tina Fitzgerald, GROP organizer, is available every Tuesday to help people tell their stories: [email protected].
This year marks SANYS’ 40th anniversary. We want to highlight the network of self-advocates, advisors, and groups across our state and need your help to make this effort successful. To submit something for publication statewide in the SANYS Firecracker email, you can:
- Email: [email protected]
- Call: 716-463-5035
- Mail: 1021 Broadway St, 4th Floor, Buffalo, NY 14212
GROUP SPOTLIGHT
Believe
Believe in Yourself and Your dreams
It’s Your choice to use Your Voice
You can make Your dreams come true when you try.
You can do anything when you set. Your Mind to, it’s true.
All you got to do is believe.
– Elise Olsen, member of the AHRC Nassau Council
Photo: John Fritz, an older man with a buzz cut smiling in a YMCA t-shirt.
SPEAKING UP STORIES
By John Fritz
Many years ago, I was the President of a self-advocacy group with other people who went to a sheltered workshop. My friend, Chester, told me that the agency was going to close the cafeteria in the work center.
Some members of my group were not pleased about it, because there were a lot of people who were diabetics and there were people who worked for minimum wage in the cafeteria. Read more
ALL ABOUT GROUPS EXCERPT
Who is self-advocacy for? — Allen Fontaine
For people with Intellectual and/or Developmental Disabilities (IDD) it is especially important that we get to speak for ourselves.
Many people with IDD experience others speaking for them and telling them what they want and need. They have not had the experience of speaking for themselves, or have tried and not been listened to.
It’s important to… Read more
RESOURCES
CONTACT
Self Advocacy Association of NYS
500 Balltown Road, Bldg 12
Schenectady, New York 12304
Phone: 518-382-1454
Email: [email protected]