At Woodhaven, we believe in celebrating all abilities. We are a team of real people; working together to help adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities succeed. We are extremely passionate about the work we do, but it shouldn’t stop with us — change is accelerated as more people work towards the same goal.
There are many ways our community can get involved and help us work towards our goal to change people’s lives by empowering them to find and achieve success on their own terms. A lot of this work begins at the root: advocacy.
Advocating for those with Disabilities
An advocate is someone who publicly supports or recommends a particular cause, or, in other words, someone who pleads on another person’s behalf. Advocacy doesn’t require a lot of time or complicated tasks — it simply means working towards a solution for a need. There are a lot of people in our community that have a desire to help those with disabilities, but they don’t know how.
We have compiled some resources as guides for those who have a passion for advocacy, specifically those who desire to be advocates for those with disabilities. Here are three simple ways to get involved today.
Take Your Legislator to Work Campaign
October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM), a national campaign to raise awareness about disability employment issues.
In an effort to celebrate the achievements of those we support, we have taken part in the Missouri Chapter of the Alliance for Full Participation’s Take Your Legislator to Work campaign in past years. The goal of this campaign is to promote awareness with the hope of increasing public dialogue about the “employ-ability” of people with disabilities.
However, we realize not everyone works somewhere that hires neurodiverse individuals. In those cases, we recommend calling your legislator and asking them to visit our EnCircle Technologies Employment Center in order to better understand the importance of passing legislation encouraging hiring those with disabilities.
For more information on the Alliance for Full Participation’s latest initiatives, check out their recent press release.
Missouri Association of Rehabilitation Facilities
Looking to get involved with the public policy side of advocacy? The Missouri Association of Rehabilitation Facilities (MARF) seeks to improve the lives of Missourians with disabilities by driving public policy and strengthening member organizations through advocacy, education and collaboration. They regularly post updates on what policies they are advocating for and against each legislative session. To better educate yourself and have confidence making calls to your legislators, check out their Legislative Priorities page.
Employers’ Guide to Reasonable Accommodation
If you are an employer, the “Employers’ Practical Guide to Reasonable Accommodation Under the Americans with Disabilities Act” is a good resource. Having your leadership team read the guide and implement one (or more) of the policies, is a simple way to be an active advocate for those with disabilities. This guide serves as a summary of some of the most frequent issues that employers have regarding accommodations and ADA compliance and the Job Accommodation Network’s practical ideas for resolving them.
Visit their website to download the guide.
Get The Latest Advocacy Updates From Woodhaven
While Woodhaven is not an advocacy organization, we will from time to time partner with the advocacy organizations mentioned above. To hear about how to get involved as a Woodhaven Advocate, make sure you sign up for our E-Newsletters and follow us on social media for day to day updates.