Self Advocacy

Self Advocacy Program

The Self-Advocacy program is designed to provide you with the skills necessary to successfully advocate independently. We offer skills development through dynamic and interactive workshops. contact us for more information.

To register for an Individual Advocacy workshop, or if you require community resource information, please contact Information and Referral at ILRC.

What is Self Advocacy?

Self Advocacy is:

learning more your rights and responsibilities
exercising your rights and navigating advocacy issues
making choices about directing your advocacy goals

The Self Advocacy Program at ILRC is designed to support you in gaining the skills and knowledge necessary to advocate for yourself across different systems and issues.

Information and Support

The following are just a few of the areas in which we offer information and support:

Rights to Essential Services
Home Care
Human Rights
Tenant and Housing Rights
Social Services and related benefits

The goal of Self Advocacy is to support you in gaining a practical set of advocacy skills which can be applied to any area of your life.Independence is not the quality of tasks you can perform without assistance, but the quality of life we can live with help.
Zola

Self Advocacy

December 17, 2019

Did You Know …?

Advocacy Tips

Self-Advocacy DOES NOT mean you have to do it alone! Everyone needs supports to be successful
Before advocating for an issue, do some research. The more you know, the better equipped you will be to successfully advocate.
Create a plan of action
- Who needs to be contacted?
- How will you contact them?
- Has anyone else experienced a similar issue?
- Who else might be able to support you or the issue?
- Does any legislation, regulations or policies exist that support your position?
- When does this need to be done by?
- How long will you wait before doing a follow-up?
When advocating for an issue, get as much information as possible in writing, this helps create a paper trail, and provides hard copies to refer back to if necessary
Save copies of any letters or emails that you send
Be aware that any information you send via email can easily, and sometimes accidentally, be forwarded on to other people
When possible, peer with people who have experienced similar issues. What barriers did they experience? What resources were useful? How were they able to resolve the issue?