It probably won't do any good for us to tell you not to worry, so, instead, we'd like to offer some advice on getting started.
- Break your work down into steps. The first step is talking to other people who can give you advice on being involved in the community. We discussed that on the previous page. When you talk to Aunt Myrna, she is going to say, "What is it you want to get done?"
If you tell her you want to have more jobs for people with disabilities in the community and she asks how you want her help, here are your two next questions:- "Can you tell me the steps you would use to get something like that done? What would you do first? What would you do next?"
- "Who else would you recommend I talk with to get advice?"
- Educate yourself. There are many websites on the Internet on self-advocacy or just for general information purposes. Of course, we like our own Spirit Lake Consulting website! Become educated on your topic. For example, if you are concerned about learning disabilities, we have a whole shelf in our virtual library on learning disabilities. You can download and read everything there free. If you are interested in Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, we have a Virtual Field Trip on FAS. One reason we offer these services on our site is that, if you type, for example, "Attention Deficit Disorder" into Google you will find over a million sites and you don't know which are just completely someone's opinion and which are proven facts. All of the links from our site are reviewed by us for accuracy.
Take notes! Don't expert to memorize all the advice Aunt Myrna gave you, or the names and phone numbers of the people she recommended.
Follow-up! You took up her time and it is likely that she will tell her friend on the school board that she gave you his name. Call him and ask if you can talk to him also. Ask him the same two questions, as well as any others you have.
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Next: Disability and Work