lifelong learning

One of my favorite parts about the job
I am at now is that I am learning something new
from somebody every single day.
I have the privilege of getting to work
with amazing individuals on a daily basis.
These individuals are some of the most driven
and caring people I have ever met, and they also
happen to be parents of children who have developmental
disabilities or adults (self advocates) who have developmental disabilties.
I have the chance to work with each group of parents and self advocates for
8 months, facilitate them in learning advocacy skills,  and watch them become better
advocates as they learn about the disability system.
(http://www.vaboard.org/policymaking.htm).
Each of the Partners in Partners in Policymaking works on a final project
from November until May.
Many of these projects involve time, scribes, phone calls, e mails, letters, and A LOT of patience.
The main requirement for the project is that it benefits the community in some way.
Tonight, I promised one of the Self Advocates that I would post his website,
 http://moreservicesinthecommunity.com/#

which also contains a link to his petition.
The petition focuses on having services (such as speech therapy, occupational therapy, and physical therapy) in the community for adults instead of in the therapy gym.
He hopes to send the petition to DMAS, and he has already made other strides to get involved
in his community.

This is just one of the many projects that our Partners have focused on during Partners in Policymaking, and this Self Advocate is just one of the 50 I have had the honor of working with
over the past 2 years.
A lot of individuals who have gone through the program state that it changed their life.
The truth is, they have changed mine.