This will be the OPN’s last gathering for the 2023-2024 academic year. The group which meets on Zoom the first Tuesday of the month will be focusing on self-advocacy for your loved ones — how they can speak up for their needs.

Facilitator Shawna Williams, from Include Me Advocacy Group, will define self-advocacy and describe its benefits. She will talk in detail on how to self-advocate by determining strengths and challenges, likes and dislikes, with examples of how to start the conversation. Shawna also will review examples of where your loved ones should self-advocate — at work, at school, and in the community — and who to ask for help. She will touch on the importance of knowing your rights on the job, what reasonable accommodations are, and how to ask for them. The Family Group will email you a lijiShawna will be making a Self-Awareness Worksheet to hand out.

Contact John Bers if you need the Zoom link for this meeting..