Texas Advocates — Peer to Peer Self Advocacy Training

Statewide Need
Not everyone has had the chance to develop the important skills required to be a successful self-advocate. Some individuals have had few opportunities to make their own choices and others have made most decisions for them. Many individuals who have learned self-advocacy through their life experiences and training have become effective self-advocates themselves, and are qualified to teach self-advocacy to others. Facilitating educational opportunities for self-advocates to train others can allow individuals to take more control of their lives, understand and protect their rights as citizens and consumers, and increase their active community participation.

Project Goal
Train individuals with developmental disabilities (DD) to advocate for their own rights and interests by making decisions and choosing supports and services that allow them to live the life they want.

Project Summary
Through the Peer to Peer Self Advocacy Training project, Texas Advocates aimed to provide training for individuals with DD to learn to advocate for their own rights and interests by making decisions and choosing supports and services that allow them to live the life they want.

The project aimed to conduct 12 local self-advocacy workshops for 150 self-advocates, develop local/regional leadership academies to train individuals to be leaders, assist individuals with DD to improve their personal lives, and support the growth of new and existing local self-advocacy organizations.

The project aimed to provide statewide information, education, technical assistance, support, training, and advocacy.