Building Interdependence at Rooted in Advocacy 2019

On March 29, 2019, The Arc of North Carolina hosted its annual Rooted in Advocacy conference in Winston-Salem.

On March 29, 2019, The Arc of North Carolina hosted its annual Rooted in Advocacy conference in Winston-Salem. This year, the conference was designed to be fully inclusive for The Arc staff and board, the vast chapter network, parents, siblings, self-advocates, and professionals who interact with people with I/DD.  The festivities began with a showing of a documentary called Deej an award-winning documentary chronicling the high school and college years of a non-speaking poet and advocate with autism, DJ Savarese, as he makes his way from public high school to Oberlin College.   As I watched the film, I couldn’t help noticing the commonalities of life with a developmental disability. Although Deej is non-speaking, I could relate to many of his experiences. He uses writing to advocate and communicate his needs and wants. He also talked about using his writing to free his people, which is the same type of language that I used to use. 

The next morning, DJ Savarese gave the opening keynote speech.

Suzanne Hening, mother to self-advocate and first-time conference attendee, Sam Hening, reflected on the presentation, and her general impression of the Rooted in Advocacy conference. 

“The first keynote speaker I really enjoyed and one thing I got out of his talk was about that we could say that Sam lives “interdependently” rather than using the term “independently”. Our general first impression was that the event was very well organized and there was a lot of positive energy. “

After the keynote speech, a diverse selection of breakout sessions was offered. Many attendees were inspired by things they learned and planned to take back to their communities.

Dr. Latrice Towns-Miller, EC Program Specialist for Union County Public Schools, discussed her experience in the breakout sessions. “I attended Challenges in Vision: Another Piece of the Puzzle, Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders: The Impact of Alcohol Exposed Pregnancies and All Behavior is Communication,” said Towns-Miller.

She continued:  “I plan on sharing all the information that I gathered from these sessions with my team. I also plan on sharing the Behavior is Communication information with a school team that is having difficulties with a student with low communication and difficult behaviors. I also want to meet with our schools system’s vision specialist to try to gather a game plan on how to identify students with less common visual difficulties early.”

Jasmine Calhoun, a self-advocate who attended Rooted in Advocacy through The Arc regional office in Asheville, agrees that it was a great conference this year. “I learned a lot,” said Calhoun. “I attended sessions about supported living and supported employment. I will share the information with other self-advocates that I learned from these sessions. The supported living session made me think about and feel like I could live on my own with some support in the future. I really enjoyed the dinner and dance on Friday night.”

As a leader in the disability community, I get invited to many different conferences. I find that the most empowering aspect of conferences is not the formal activities, but in the community that we create during the informal times, like lunch. The Arc conference was no exception. I saw an amazing cross-section of leaders in local, state, and national disability rights movements, all in the same location. In a way, it reminded me of a family reunion, because these were people who I see on the internet, but I rarely get to see in person. So, it was moving to see everybody.

The conference closed with an emotional and impassioned presentation  from Natalie Weaver, founder of Sophia’s Voice and co-founder of Advocates for Medically Fragile Kids.  Natalie’s  oldest daughter, Sophia, inspired her passion for advocacy. For over a decade, she has advocated for her daughter who was born with facial, hand and foot deformities and numerous disabilities. In 2016, Natalie became involved in public advocacy when she and a small group of concerned mothers stopped North Carolina from reducinglife-saving services for Sophia.

My first impression of Natalie and her work is that it is amazing how a small group of mothers can form an organization in such a short time and gather allies to prevent the state from cutting necessary services to keep her daughter alive.  It’s also neat to see her grow from a local-advocate to someone who was featured nationally on CNN.  She reminds all of us that, “it is so important for us to advocate, tell our stories and share our truth because it’s the only way things will change.”  When asked what it was like to be the closing keynote speaker, she replied, “Any opportunity to share my journey with others is an honor.  To go from being a hidden person three years ago to speaking in front of others to encourage them to open up and share is still unbelievable to me.  My favorite part was to be able to talk to self-advocates afterwards to discuss their work and what’s important to them.”

Duncan Reid, Regional Director for The Arc of North Carolina’s Asheville region, offered a reflection on the closing keynote, and the conference in general. “The closing keynote was especially moving.  Who could have ever imagined that a person/family would be subjected to hate speech?  No words.  But the story was also very inspiring that one person standing up for what is right and decent could have an impact.” 

Duncan points out the growth of the Rooted in Advocacy conference and encourages others to attend next year.  “I’ve been to many a conference for The Arc over the years, and this was one of the best in recent memory,” said Reid.  “I will also encourage others to come. As a professional, I found it a great place to network with other professionals[m7] [BD8] .” This year is my third time being involved in the Rooted in Advocacy conference.  I think it’s improving each I attend, especially as it becomes more and more inclusive with everyone that’s involved in advocacy.  There is still a lot of work to do, so it’s great to have a place for everyone to come together.  I can’t wait to see what next year brings.