Self-Advocacy Spotlight Archives - GCDD Making a Difference Magazine

Georgia Self-Advocates – How We Contribute

Self-advocates across Georgia work and contribute to their communities as individual citizens and as members of the growing self-advocacy network, Uniting for Change. When we focus on how everyone has something to contribute, we find ways for people to find and share their gifts and talents.

The Foundation of Advocacy

Hello Advocates! My name is Charlie Miller and I am the Legislative Advocacy Director here at the Georgia Council on Developmental Disabilities (GCDD). Session is finally out, and your state senators and house representatives are back in their communities. We have just finished celebrating two major holidays, Juneteenth and the Fourth of July. Both celebrate independence in different ways, but our community has another great Independence Day coming up – the day the federal legislature passed the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). This critical piece of legislation is one of the foundational pieces of the disability rights movement and helped pave the way for people with disabilities to advocate for their rights to be in the community.

Uniting for Change – How and Why We Advocate

Hi, I am Marian Jackson and I am from Fitzgerald, GA. I am a state advocate for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and have been for over 20 years. I am also a mother of an adult child with disabilities. I, along with five People First members and others from a small group, advocated for public transportation. We successfully got transportation for not just the disability community but for all people in Fitzgerald.

Advocates Prepare for the 2023 Legislative Session

Hello Advocates, The Georgia General Assembly is preparing for another legislative session coming up in January. The Georgia Legislative session will start the second Tuesday of January and go until early or mid-April. During Georgia’s Legislative session, the state House

Lele Griner Shares Her Passion with the World through Instagram and a Lot of Sugar

Disability advocate Lele Griner loves to bake. She worked in bakeries during high school, interned at a bakery in college, and started working at a bakery after graduating from Destination Dawgs at University of Georgia. Griner is also a proud

The Value of Being Valued in Inclusive Post Secondary Education

By John McCarty, Self-Advocate in the Leadership Collective of Uniting for Change Many people believe that people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) can’t learn and don’t belong in post secondary educational settings. As part of Uniting for Change and

Self-Advocate Gives Powerful Speech at State Capitol

On February 28, 2022, Michael Housel, a self- advocate from Tifton, Georgia, gave a powerful and passionate speech at the State Capitol in Atlanta, Georgia, in support of Senate Bill 208. Mr. Housel is a founding member of Uniting for

Self-Advocacy In Action – Building on Sources of Strength

The Uniting for Change Leadership Collective came together for a retreat in early November in North Georgia called the Power of Resilience. We worked together, about 45 of us, to build fires inside of our hearts, and our minds, and

My Journey to One of My Dreams

Uniting for Change is a grassroots network of self-advocates that is growing the self-advocacy movement in Georgia. Along with family members, allies and supporters, self-advocates work on “uniting Georgians and influencing change by speaking up and taking control of our

SELF-ADVOCACY SPOTLIGHT: Susan Burch and Michelle Simon

Essay Forty-Six

I would like to share with you a message from my dear friend and use her message as a conduit for my own. We have known each other for a while but have become extremely close during COVID-19. She is