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Welcome to the Awesome Mary Show!
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[LAUGHTER]
I said I wanted to do the Ellen Show but maybe
she can book me after Dancing with the Stars.
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But I still wanna do the Ellen Show.
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Just call my peeps.
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We have a great show today.
We're gonna talk about how to be self advocate.
What does it mean to be a self advocate?
Our guest is gonna tell us!
Please welcome Karin Korb!
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Welcome to the show, Karin!
Mary, it's such a pleasure to be on your show.
Let's get to the chase.
What does it mean to be a self advocate?
What is self advocacy?
So, let's break up that phrase.
So you have the word "self"
and you have the word, "advocacy".
So, "self" is you,
yourself, inside, your body, your mind, your spirit,
how you think, your identifier.
Then there's the word "advocacy".
Which is defined as
the act of supporting a cause
or a specific proposal.
In our movement,
and when I refer to the word "our"
I'm talking about people with disabilities.
Self advocacy is literally the civil rights movement
for people with intellectual disabilities,
cognative disabilities,
and developmental disabilities,
and basically, all people with disabilities.
It's about having the right
to making your own decision
without having undue stress or control
by other people.
Who should be a self advocate?
Everyone can be a self advocate, Mary,
and everyone should be a self advocate.
Why is it important to be a self advocate?
Self advocacy is so important
because everyone should have the right,
and the access to the skills that they need
so that they can make their own
independent decisons
about what affects their own life.
Historically,
people with disabilities have been,
powerless, they've been isolated,
they've been segregated,
and they have been denied
their basic human rights.
They have been
discriminated against literally
in every place and in every way.
When is it important to be a self advocate?
There are so many situations where self advocacy
is important for people with disabilities.
Where you wish to live,
your educational process,
your IEP
which is your individualized education program, right?
Your voting rights,
when you go to the doctor's office
and maybe, the doctor,
he or she is not listening
to what you want
about yourself.
There's going to be times when you are
going to be your best self advocate
when you are trying to get a job,
or, perhaps, when you are
trying to get some time off from your work
to go to an appointment,
and then, there's going to be times when
you're gonna be the best self advocate,
when someone's bulling you.
And the list goes on, and on, and on, and on.
So, how should we start?
What should our first step be?
It is all about getting those skills.
There are many organizations that you can
reach out to
that can give you those skills.
So the first one I would recommend is
the SABE organization.
Which is, you can look them up on their website,
www.sabeusa.org
Now SABE stands for,
"Self Advocates Becoming Empowered".
That's the first organization.
Then you also have NCIL,
which stands for,
"the National Center on Independent Living".
Their website is
www.ncil.org
And any one of those organizations
they also have local chapters.
So when you reach out to the national organization
you can get information about
where the local chapter is in your area
to get these levels of empowerment.
Within all of these organziations
you can find resources about
how to speak up for yourself,
finding out what your rights and responsibilities are,
problem solving,
you can find information about problem solving,
and most importantly
learning about what self determination is.
If you had one piece of advice
for an advocate,
what would it be?
You know, my one piece of advice
would be to remind you,
and to keep reminding you,
that you have the power
to direct your own life.
Thank you for talking to us today!
It's my pleasure!
Karin Korb everybody!
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We're out of time at the Awesome Mary Show.
We'll see you soon!
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