About Self Advocacy

Self advocacy means speaking or acting for yourself. It means deciding what is best for you and taking charge of getting what you want. It means standing up for your rights as a person. The Department of Developmental Services (DDS) believes that all of the people we provide services to can benefit from learning and using self advocacy skills. In 2004, nine DDS Self Advocate Coordinator positions were created to help expand and enhance self advocacy throughout Connecticut. The Self Advocate Coordinators are responsible for providing leadership, coordination, role modeling and mentoring of self advocacy to individuals in their assigned geographic area. They do this by supporting existing self advocacy groups and helping start new self advocacy groups; by providing self advocacy and self determination training to consumers, staff and families; by creating self advocacy and self determination materials that are written for and by people with cognitive disabilities, and by participating on DDS and other statewide committees to influence change that will result in the enhanced empowerment of people with cognitive disabilities.