Continue reading »]]> How do we move the cause of Self-Advocacy forward? Self-Advocacy begins with the individual. Start with the mindset that I am tough, rugged, strong, powerful. I can cope and handle anything that life throughs my way and rise above it, succeed, and reach my goals. Self-Advocacy requires self-discipline, courage, and hardwork, and the ability to pick yourself off the floor when things don’t work out. It means never saying quit, and being committed to being all you can be.

People respect personal and physical strength. The two build on each other. This is why making fitness and wellness a high priority is so important. It helps a person be more assertive and to be more in control. It is also reduces wasteful passive-aggressive confrontations.

Last but not least, personal empowerment flows from beinging in touch with your value system and your understanding of spirituality. It is very important to know what is meaningful to you and to live in accords with that meaning.

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Continue reading »]]> I was told long, long time ago, that we have two ears but only one mouth, so we need to take special attention to listening before we yap away.

Family, friends, peers, and professionals have great insights and may have a wealth of information to share with us.

It is also my experience that the image we project to others influences greatly what people will say to us. If we project confidence, maturity, and assertivenss, people will talk to us in a more positive and constructive manner.

A funny thing is we need to listen to ourselves. What is our body, mind, and heart trying to tell us? May be we need to make a change, try a new opportunity, or may be we need to hang in there when the going gets tough. I feel in the long run, we make our own possibilities and potential.

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Continue reading »]]> Early Notification of Monthly Disability Call

Thursday, December 22, 2011 2:18 PM
From:
“White House Disability Group”
Add sender to Contacts
To:
trena_wade@yahoo.com
Thursday, December 22, 2011

Hello Everyone,

We’re once again resuming our monthly disability calls.

In order to help keep you more informed, we host these monthly calls to update you on various disability issues as well as to introduce you to persons who work on disability issues in the Federal government.

This call is open to everyone, and we strongly urge and ask that you distribute this email broadly to your networks and listservs so that everyone has the opportunity to learn this valuable information.

If you received this email as a forward but would like to be added to the White House Disability Group email distribution list, please visit our website at http://www.whitehouse.gov/disability-issues-contact and fill out the contact us form in the disabilities section or you can email us at disability@who.eop.gov and provide your full name, city, state, and organization.

We will be addressing a number of issues during this next call since we have not had a call recently.

Also, we will begin answering the questions and issues many of you raised through disability.gov. So, dial in to hear if we answer your question or address your issue.

And, we will have some exciting announcements!

I would encourage you to call in about five minutes early due to the large volume of callers.

The conference call information is below.

Date of Call: 01/18/2012
Start Time: 2:00 PM Eastern (dial in 5 minutes early)
This call will probably last one and a half hour.
We will provide the dial in information and the link for captioning in another email in the first week of January so look for that email.

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Continue reading »]]> Barbie Broadhurst just passed on recently. Her passage reminds me how each life touches someone else. This is especially important for us self-advocates to keep in mind.

We have lived and experienced so much that it is important for us to pass it on to others who are just beginning their journey on self-advocacy.

Life is about taking the time to celebrate others, especially while we still have them. Life is precious and far too short. We don’t know what tomorrow may bring.

These are words I need to tell myself. Be a message of hope and cheer to someone you care about. You may make a world of difference to that person.

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Continue reading »]]> Self-advocacy includes the whole person. I would like to say a word about wellness. This includes physical, mental, and spiritual well being. The three can be interrelated.

As I advance in age, I find I need to pay increased attention to my health. My life seems like a never ending schedule of medical appointments. My doctor has put his foot down about my weight. I am slimply too heavy and that is causing a number of other health issues.

I admit I got sloppy with my eating habits. I like food. I am totally bipartisan when it comes to food. I met with a nurse and we came up with a food eating plan. I am not up to an exercise plan, but I do need to get more active exercising 30 minutes four times per week.

This might not sound like much to you but for me this is a big change. I hope a have the discpline and resolve to stick with it.

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Continue reading »]]> While there is a lot of uncertainty out there regarding funding and services, we do have much to be thankful this year. The first is that we have eachother. We are stronger together than we are living and advocating by ourselves. We are also learning that we can’t take our rights and the services we rely upon for granted.

We need to be mindful of our social contract. We are members of society and our entitled to the rights of priveldges as such including procreation. Don’t let anyone tell you that there is something wrong with the word entitlement. It is a source of dignity, power, and respect.

We have the right of affiliation to have meaningful relationships social, personal, as well as intimate and all that it implies. We have the right of influence to have a say in the decisions in our lives at the personal as well as civic and political. We have the right to access the private and public resources. This includes safe, affordable, and reliable public transportation. We have right to have the opportunity to gain meaningful work, earn a fair wage, and engage in commerce, to have our own business if we so desire.

Yes we have much to be thankful for as we join with family in annual celebrations and festivities.

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Continue reading »]]> The upcoming meeting on November 12 promises to be a busy and exciting day. We will have speeches be the nominees and then we will hold our officer elections. Then we will select the logo for the conference. The winner will get a scholarship to attend the conference. We will have updates on the Rachel’s Women’s Shelter and the Teddy Bear Dance. For all tense and purposes, this meeting will kick off the holidays. See you there.

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