Gulf Coast Self-Advocates — Capacity Building Mini-Grant

Project Summary
Gulf Coast Self-Advocates — in partnership with The Arc of the Gulf Coast — recruited new members and volunteers to help members with activities, transportation, and decision-making. The project supported scholarships for new and existing members and volunteers to attend the annual Texas Advocates Conference. Gulf Coast Self-Advocates also presented self-advocacy information in local school districts through collaboration with Imagine Enterprises.

Through Capacity Building Mini-Grants for Self-Advocacy Groups, TCDD supports local self-advocacy groups in building their organizational capacity to become more established in their communities, create partnerships, and conduct formal activities. As a result of project activities, organizations will expand their role and impact to support people with developmental disabilities (DD).

Project Highlights

• The Gulf Coast Self-Advocates welcomed 20 new members with DD who attended regular group meetings and the Texas Advocates conference.
• Group members traveled to the State Capitol in Austin three times during the Texas legislative session in 2023 to meet their elected representatives and talk about issues important to the members’ lives.
    

Personal Impact Story
One new group member joined after a significant disruption in his personal life. This member, a man in his mid-30s, recently moved in with a sibling after the death of his stepmother. The transition to this new life left him feeling lost, without support, and in a new community away from the only home he had ever previously known. After joining the group and attending the annual Texas Advocates conference, he got more involved in his new community and joined a local program involving horses. The project gave him a new understanding of self-advocacy and new opportunities to meet with legislative representatives to advocate for himself and others.