• Independent Certified Instructor (ICI) of Sign Language

• Award-winning Advocate and Trainer related to Access for All

• Consultant – arts, education, local & state businesses over 30 years

• Grant review services

• Complimentary needs assessor and instructor

• Promoter and advisor of students pursuing Sign Language Interpreter goals

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Fight, Flight or Compromise: Strategies for Effective Advocacy

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How can we be an ally to you?

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Qualities of a good ally include someone who:
 

• Is proud of her/his own culture and heritage

• Takes responsibility for learning about the heritage of other groups

• Listens to and respects the points of view and experiences of those targeted by discrimination

• Knows that unlearning oppressive beliefs and actions is a lifelong process, and welcomes each change to do so

• Acts against social injustice out of a belief that he/she can make a difference

• Is willing to make mistakes, learn from them, and try again

• Understands that there is a connection between all forms of social injustice

• Is able to get support from others (potential allies)

• Is willing to take risks, try new behaviors and act in spite of personal fears or resistance from others

• Is willing to be informed about one’s own behavior and attitude and to consider change
  - Adapted from Teaching for Diversity and Social Change. Editors: Adam Bell and Griffin

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Advocacy is an active process designed to make any social system-public, community based or private- more responsive to the needs of each individual served by that system. 

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Self-advocacy, as an empowerment strategy, operates on two levels.

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On an individual level, the person who learns to communicate and act on his/her own behalf opens up pathways to pursue interests and option, to gain greater knowledge of his/her rights and to better exercise the responsibilities which will ensure that his/her rights are not abrogated by others. 

 

The second level involves expansion of the skills of self-determination to include a merger with others who have common interests, to achieve mutual goals. Together We Can!