Self-advocacy means speaking up for yourself about your rights. It means speaking up about how you want to live your life, about making choices for yourself and about having equal rights.
As a self-advocate you can:
- Act alone, or with others to be a strong voice for your rights.
- Work together with other self-advocates to talk about things that are important to you
- Tell people (groups, schools, employers) about what can be done to make your world a better place to live
- Tell government about what they can do to help make life better for people with a disability
How NBACL Supports Self-Advocates
- We offer information such as books, videos, and online resources on topics that are important to you
- We can help connect you with local groups for support
- We share important information about community living
- We work in an advisory role in partnership with NB People First
- We offer guidelines on how to include self-advocates in decision making
NB People First
NB People First is a group of self-advocates who have been labeled with a disability (NB People First is not a part of NBACL, but we do support this group as requested.)
The mission of NB People First is to support people with a disability to speak for themselves. They also support people who have been labeled with a disability to have the opportunity to speak out and be heard.
Here are some things that NB People First does:
- Protect the voice of the people
- Act on what people say
- Talk about important issues
- Bring people together so that they can help each other
The Goals of NB People First are:
- To be as independent as possible in their homes, jobs and recreation
- To teach the public that people with a disability are people first
- To live, work and contribute in our own communities
- To have the same rights as people who do not have a disability
If you are a person who has been labeled with a disability, you can become a member at your local chapter (a “chapter” is the NB People First group in your community).
NB People First is lead by self-advocates with the support of a provincial advisor (an advisor is someone who helps People First organize meetings and to carry out their goals.)
People First of NB
Donna Brown, President
Email: peoplefirstNB@gmail.com
