Uniting for Change – How and Why We Advocate

Marian Jackson, from Fitzgerald, GA, is a state advocate for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and has been for over 20 years. She is also a mother of an adult child with disabilities. Jackson, along with five People First members and others from a small group advocated for public transportation, and they were successful in getting transportation for not just the disability community but for all people in Fitzgerald.She is part of Uniting For Change, a disability leadership collective.She discusses relationships with people that receive supports and their allies/supporters and Direct Support Professionals (DSPs). Many times, people with disabilities are lonely and isolated. The DSPs help people learn how to get out there and make friends. They often get close. DSPs often talk to people with disabilities in ways that can help people to be better. They tend to communicate more and help people with disabilities form relationships and make friends in ways different from a regular friend.The Georgia Council on Developmental Disabilities (GCDD) is driven by its Five Year Strategic Plan goals to improve services and supports for people with intellectual and other developmental disabilities (I/DD). The Council, charged with creating systems change for individuals with developmental disabilities and family members, will work through various advocacy and capacity building activities to build a more interdependent, self-sufficient, and integrated and included disability community across Georgia.This project was supported, in part by grant number 2001GASCDD-03, from the U.S. Administration for Community Living, Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, D.C. 20201. Grantees undertaking projects with government sponsorship are encouraged to express freely their findings and conclusions. Points of view or opinions do not, therefore, necessarily represent official ACL policy.