**The information provided on this podcast is not intended to constitute legal advice. Instead all information content & materials available are for General informational purposes only.** Welcome to Right Here Right Now the podcast about disability advocacy and activism! I'm your Advocate host, Ren Faszewski. [VIRGINIA]: And I'm your Advocate host Virginia Pharis. [REN]: Every two weeks we've taken to relevant issues, current events and avenues, for self-advocacy. [VIRGINIA]: Someone has to, [Ren]: and it might as well be us. Find out more at dLCV.org [Ren]: How you doing today? [VIRGINIA]: I am like a sponge today, Ren I am ready to absorb information. [Ren]: It’s going to be a lot of information today. We have our lovely Rhonda T. with us today—who will be talking to us about self-advocacy, which doesn’t explain what self-advocacy is. [VIRGINIA]: We are going to sort of, especially while the General Assembly is still in session and there are self-advocacy days left, we wanted to make sure that our listeners really got a timer in what are some good ideas if you’re going to go to those self-advocacy days. [REN]: Lots of ways to be involved. Before that, let’s jump into Disability in the News! **News Break: The US Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Community Living (ACL for short) is incentivizing companies to hire and incorporate people with disabilities into their workplaces. Research has shown that companies who employ people with disabilities report higher revenues, bigger profit margins, better morale and greater retention rates. Many companies report not knowing how to incorporate people with disabilities into their workplaces, which is why the ACL is hosting a competition. They are offering companies up to $100,000 to commit to including employees with disabilities in their workforce to redefine workforce development and break down employment barriers people with disabilities face. Businesses have until February 14, 2020 to submit proposals for the competition and the winners will receive $380,000 over the course of three phases in the coming year. [REN]: Alright so now we are ready to dive into today's topic hello Rhonda! [RHONDA]: I'm super excited [REN]: We're glad that we didn't scare you away so today we know well previously we've talked to you about the budget as part of the general assembly and why that's important and now we're going to talk about how people can get involved again Advocate [VIRGINIA]: sort of we know what needs to be hammered on if I can use a really clumpy analogy. [RHONDA]: That is a perfect example or analogy or metaphor whatever they call it [VIRGINIA]: just the basics what does it mean to be a self-advocate? [RHONDA]: So being a self-advocate can mean a couple of different things it could be that you are advocating for yourself with people that are working for you or on your behalf so for example you might want to advocate with your doctor for a certain type of treatment that you might want to try that's a self-action right but also can be done at a at a kind of greater community level with people that are in power in Richmond that are making the laws and deciding how we spend our public money in Virginia for people that need services and supports for Disabilities. So it could be at the individual level or can be advocating at what we call a macro level so a higher level that impacts lots of people not just one individual person. [REN]: I imagine that can be pretty intimidating, you know when you when you want to get involved and you have you know things that are important to you and you want to start it can probably seem daunting just to get involved with legislators and with the law and things like that but what if how do you start in terms of what issues you'd like to get involved in? Imagine you know you're a person who's in general want to support people with disabilities are you have a disability but you're not really sure what's going on are you need to educate yourself about what's going on, how do you learn about that? [RHONDA]: So really great way to learn about it is to talk to people that work on the issues that are important to you. So for example you could reach out to one of our state advocacy organizations for example if you're a person that you have a family member with an intellectual developmental disability the ARC of Virginia is the state advocacy Organization for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Just like the ARC is for people with ID DD NAMI Virginia for example is your organization that Advocates on behalf of people with mental illness organizations like Nami Virginia the ARC of Virginia you know vocal which is the Virginia organization of consumers asserting leadership. Part of their job is to know what's going on and to know what is happening at the state level and to know what people should be advocating for so, for example if you are a I'm thinking of an example… so let's say that you are a brother or sister of a person with a serious illness who needs housing and you know that permanent Supportive Housing is a good model and you want to Advocate that the state expand permanent Supportive Housing. You could go to an organization like NAMI Virginia or to the Virginia Housing Alliance, which is another housing advocacy organization and say to them so I've got a brother or sister or mother or father or whoever it is or you or me as an individual that's right you was an individual with a mental health challenge that you want to get involved advocating so that we have better housing for people with mental illness. Those organizations can tell you okay so here's what's going on at the general assembly level or in the state government and this is what we think we should advocate for. So for example NAMI Virginia is a strong advocate for permanent Supportive Housing they could tell you they can give you examples of things that you could say they can tell you who you can talk to which legislators might be important for you to reach out to you could always reach out to your own legislator so all of us have a general assembly to General Assembly members we have a house delegate which is a member of the House of Delegates and we have a state senator which is our representative in the State Senate as well. [VIRGINIA]: I would imagine that you know if you're somebody with a disability you obviously know the issues that are important to you better than anyone but reaching out to another self-advocacy organization that works in that arena of disability that would be really good way to get you know this sound bites in the jargon that are going to resonate with people in the legislature that you know kind of need to hear certain things in a certain way for it to make sense. [RHONDA]: Exactly it's right! I mean one of the other benefits are reaching out to an organization is that their strength in numbers so when we have a thousand people that are all saying the same thing it has a huge impact as compared to the impact that maybe one or two people. If you have never spoken with an elected leader before going with somebody who's done that before or somebody who has ever done it before but would just feel more comfortable doing it with somebody else it's always helpful to have no strength in numbers cuz you could support each other. [REN]: Again sounds like going to these kinds of organizations is a great way to also get informed about what's going on in terms of the actual legislation like what the lawmakers are writing down because I think that would be critical obviously need to know what to advocate for is knowing what the actual laws are that they're discussing. [RHONDA]: That's right, and that's one of the really important services that these organizations offer is that they interpret those bills for example like it's hard for the average person who isn’t a lawyer to interpret those bills, because I swear I think lawyers are trained to write for people can understand it. An organization like the ARC for example will follow all bills in the general assembly that will have any impact on people with intellectual or developmental disabilities and they could say well okay I can tell you what this bill means this still means that you know there will be more services for young people with intellectual developmental disabilities during crisis. You may not necessarily understand everything that's in the bill but they can help explain it to you. [REN]: So now we're at a point where we have at least we know what we want to talk about we are aware of what's going on what specific laws are going to be talked about in the general assembly, what sort of a good way to start I guess your career as a self-advocate? [RHONDA]: Career is a great way to put it. The first thing that is important is for people to know who their legislators are. Who are the people that are representing you and representing all of us in Richmond and in Washington DC and the general assembly session started a week ago or less little bit less than a week ago and so they're in Richmond for the next 60 days to argue about the budget which we talked about in our last session and to pass bills and there's a lot of Bill passing stuff going on right now so number one is to know your legislator so if you don't know who your legislator is the Virginia General Assembly has a website which everybody refers to is who's my legislator and if you Google who's my legislator Virginia. It will take you to this site you put in your full address and it will tell you who your State Delegate is your state senator is and how your Congressional representatives are in Washington so we're not really talking about but you get to know them like online for example so if you have internet access they all have their own website they have their own Twitter feeds they have their own Facebook pages if you're on social media, like you know social media probably not Snapchat, I bet Twitter and Facebook some of the common was the old people use that you can follow their their accounts and get updates on what they're doing. And then you can also attend local public hearings you can go to town hall meetings for example of the mental health advocacy organizations do mental health advocacy day every year in the general assembly where they bring mental health advocates together and most of those people are self-advocates that come to advocacy day. We don't have the pros that are not have lobbyists that are coming every everyday people are affected at that are people with lived experience with mental health substance use family members of people with mental health and substance abuse problem. The number one way is to vote because that's the way that we can all participate in the public process. So the first thing to do would be let's figure out who your legislator is so you know what they're doing in your name because that's essentially what they are doing, things in your name and in your district. [REN]: I know that these town halls and things like that are really important because the whole idea of voting for this representative is that they're supposed to represent the community's interests and this is a really good opportunity for people in the community to actually say what their interests are in a in a way that is that I can be heard because I think that lack of connection can really what's the word I'm looking for discourage people from reaching out and talking about what's important to them. [RHONDA]: There is one really important point here and that is that just because the general assembly session is going on right now doesn't mean people can't reach out to their legislators all year round. Virginia has a part-time legislature which means they only me they don't meet you around however are delegates are state senators work year-round though. The ways to contact your legislators there's a bunch of different ways that you can do that in the easiest one is make a phone call send him an email or send him a letter or tweet it or Facebook message. My dad is famous for his local congressional representative and he loves to do that. One really important way is to ask for a meeting. That's a really important way to make connections with legislators because it's easier to see somebody as a person when they're actually sitting in front of you then when you're sending an email or they get a letter from you. I mean these are all important ways, but meeting people face-to-face is often more effective because then they put a face with the name. [REN]: It is true that phone calls can be even more effective, particularly when they're meeting in session and they are so busy. [RHONDA]: Every legislator in Richmond has two different phone numbers they have their regular office phone number which is in their District, so if you live in Albemarle County and that's area served by Senator Deeds, he's got a local office but he also has an office in the Capitol. So he has a phone number in Charlottesville and he has a phone number in Richmond now the phone number Richmond is only used during the general assembly session but you could always call the number in Charlottesville because that's where his main office is. So meeting them in person people can also you know attend committee meetings at the general assembly all of those meetings are open to the public you can speak to legislators you can speak to committees, there is a lot of different ways to get involved. I mean other ways that people don't really think about her like writing a letter to the editor of your local newspaper you know talking about and that goes out too many more people than just start the people that your legislator serves so it's another way to make the connection like that too. [VIRGINIA]: With that in mind, other than reaching out to local legislators, how can someone in the community advocate their position? [RHONDA]: So the best advice that I can give to people about at working with our legislators is to tell your story. Legislators want to know what's happening with their people with their constituents. So telling our stories is a really effective way to advocate because it brings home to the legislator to your Senator your state senator your delegate in a long time ago there in Richmond they're dealing with you know these issues at the state level but self-advocates are dealing with these issues in a very personal way there personally affected their personally affected by mental health challenges or by intellectual disabilities or by some kind of physical or other non-visible disability. So telling your legislator your story helps them to understand why what they're dealing with at the state level is so important because it affects individual people. There are some guidelines some ways to do this better or are more effective when you interface with her when you talk to a legislator. The first thing to say is have a point. They don't have time to just have a chat you know it's nice to be able to have a chat but with 80,000 or 200,000 people they don't have time to just chat like it'd be great to have coffee but that’s way too many people to have coffee with. Keep it short you know so when you're talking to a legislator one-on-one some would say that you are a mental health Advocate and you're interested in permanent supportive housing cuz we talked about that already a lot and you want to let your senator that you believe that your Senator he or she, should vote to increase the state budget for permanent supportive housing. so you've made an appointment, you go into their office you know hello Senator Joe whichever Senator is your Senator you know I really believe that the state needs more permanent Supportive Housing for people with serious mental illness so that's your message your messages what you want them to know we need more permanent Supportive housing. So then the next step is to connect your story to your message so you know my brother has serious mental illness and he has been homeless off and on for the last 10 years because he can't find supportive housing in the community where we live. So that's that your story so your messages more permanent supportive housing your story is my brother or I so it maybe you're a person that's had you no experience homelessness I can't stay house because there isn't enough permanent supportive housing where I live in Danville for example let's just say so your messages more permanent supportive housing your story is this affects me personally for whatever reason it affects you. Then the third thing is what is your request Senator I really hope that you will support the governor's budget proposal for 3 million dollars in state funding for permanent supportive housing because if we can get this money 500 additional people with serious mental illness could get housing. [VIRGINIA]: That’s great if you can be that specific with what you want done but you know I I think that it would also be nearly as effective to just say you know what I want from this is for you to support more permanent supportive housing. You do not have to be an expert in what's like in front of the Governor or in front of the legislators. I mean speak your truth. [RHONDA]: If you're talking with your legislator and it's during the general assembly session like right now and you're going and you're meeting with them at the capitol for example this time of the year it's really a good idea to be specific because they're dealing with bills are dealing with budges. But, say that it's September and you want to talk to your legislator about you know we need more services for young kids that have special education needs right so you can still use the same what's the problem what's your story and how does it connect and here's what I would like for you to do what are the three messages at your elevator speech right and if it's much more effective to be less specific when it's not during the General Assembly session because during the session question are dealing with specifics. I always try to give some advocates some do's and don'ts for how to communicate with policymakers. Policymakers could be elected officials they could be state agency representatives and so there are some of their things to do in their things that are that are not so good to do so the things to do you want to be positive be friendly again be brief and have a story so again it's like it's not like you're having coffee with your bestie they've got time limitations and they need to get on to the next thing right. It's a good idea to use fact sheets so and those advocacy organizations we talked about like NAMI and VOCAL and the ARC and they always have fact sheets like the ARC has a ton of fact sheets that people can access on the website. Same thing with the other advocacy organization, that gives them something that you can hand them as a tangible thing that you leave behind that they can look at later. We also want to make sure that we're giving correct information to legislators and policymakers so if they ask you a question and you don't know the answer it's totally fine to say you know I'm not really sure but let me find out and I'll get back to you. Because the last thing you want to do is give inaccurate information because that damages your credibility as an advocate and as an advocate all you really have is your credibility right so you want to make sure that you're telling them things that you know are true it [REN]: Also I am sorry to interrupt, also makes me think about like I know that it's sometimes in this committee sessions the legislator specifically talk about some of the stories are can stitch abscess so you want to make sure that the story you tell it is accurate because they're going to bring it in front of other Members and the last thing they want to be told is actually wrong [RHONDA]: So I'm glad you brought up the story because one place that people can tell their stories that a lot of people are are nervous about telling your story is actually at the general assembly in a committee meeting ever Bill gets debated by the committee that were all bills are referred to a committee and members of the public have the right to speak on bills. So if you go to a Committee hearing and there's a bill that you're very strongly supporting or you're strongly opposed to, you as a member of the public have the right to make your comments to the committee that's considering that bill and that's where a lot of people tell their stories. So you also want to be clear about your position. For example: so I support additional permanent supportive housing because it's a good thing or I oppose to cutting the state budget for Medicaid because it will impact low-income people that need healthcare. Right and then you also always want to thank them for their thank you so much for your time and then you could also when you get home send an email or a letter thanking them for their time and saying you know thank you for your time and meeting these are the points that we discussed you know whatever if you're inclined to do that. Now on the flipside, what not to do so legislators are used to dealing with angry people right but we don't want to go in and be angry and that one confront people we wanted to yell we don't want to threaten we don't want to say this is a waste of my time because time spent with a legislator is never wasted [REN]: Right I think passion not anger [RHONDA]: Yes, that's a perfect way to phrase that passion, not anger and I struggle with that myself. Like I said, make a point so don't get off the subject don't ramble make your point and then leave because you want them to think about what you said. Something that is really important is that all legislators have what are called legislative aides and these are the people that work in their office and don't blow off a legislative aide if you if you reach out to your Senator or your delegate and you want to meet with them but you send the message you get as well they don't really have time to meet with you but their legislative aide can meet with you that is almost as good as meeting with the legislator because that those people have their ear so that's something to think about. Then the last thing is that when you're at the capital when you come to advocacy day and you're going around in your meeting with people when you get in the elevator don't talk about how horrible they are in an elevator and the General Assembly Building and say how much you can't stand senator so and so and then senator so and so is standing right behind you you just ruined your message. It is important understand how we are advocating with people and for ourselves because the messages you know that's the last thing that they may hear from you or about the issue what you're talking about and that's a bad taste to leave in someone’s mouth and so its ok to complain when you leave but not when you're still in the building is a really good thing. [REN]: Thank you, Rhonda, again for coming and chatting with us about self-advocacy. I think we are super prepared to get involved in our communities of things you mentioned again if these mental health and DD advocacy days there are too numerous to list all in a row so NAMI Virginia is going to post the mental health day is on their website if you're interested in getting involved and the Arc of Virginia has the DD advocacy days so those are great ways to get started as self-advocates! [RHONDA]: Another organization we didn't talk about which I should have mentioned before is Voices for Virginia's Children which is the state's child advocacy organization and they do some advocacy days, one on trauma-informed Care there's you know so check them out to if you have kids that you're interested in advocating. [VIRGINIA]: We also wanted to let her listeners know that dLCV will be posting sort of a legislative updates on our website I think daily we will be doing that so that is how we will be keeping you informed about what's going on at the Capitol. [REN]: Thank you so much! [RHONDA]: You’re welcome! [VIRGINIA]: And now a dLCV Highlight… For the first time in many years, we have monitoring visits scheduled at local and regional jails. We are going to monitor conditions, access to mental health services, and access to assistive technology. We will inform inmates with disabilities of their rights and grievance procedures to address concerns. We intend to work with the ADA Coordinator and Superintendent to address any trends or concerns that we identify. We are hopeful that the collaboration with jails will improve services to inmates with disabilities. [REN]: Well we want to once again thank the lovely Rhonda for coming and educating us about how we can get more active in our communities. [VIRGINIA]: Yeah, I feel more prepared to like go in front of my representatives and argue for the things that I find to be important cuz it's important to do that we need voices that aren't just like history voices but no in the state we need voices that aren't coming from politicians that are coming from like the people who are going to actually be impacted by stuff, this is really important stuff we're so excited that Rhonda was able to come and school us on it. [REN]: Thank you all for listening to this episode of Right Here Right Now brought to you by the disability Law Center of Virginia. We are available on Apple podcasts Spotify or wherever you get your podcast! [VIRGINIA]: Don't forget to subscribe, and leave a review If you need assistance or want more information about dLCV and what we do visit us online at dlcv.org and follow us on Twitter at disability law VA insurance with your friends until next time I'm Ren Faszewski and I'm Virginia Pharis and this has been Rights Here, Rights Now! **