Upcoming Workshops

Empowering Students with Disabilities Through Advocacy-LIAC: Teach students specific areas of education law that require advocacy and give them the skills necessary to effectively advocate for students with disabilities. There will be a focus on current disabilities and education rights issues and laws.

Empowering Families of Children and Young Adults with Disabilities to Gain Access to Inclusive School and Community Environments-LIU: This workshop will provide participants with facts regarding the state of affairs on Long Island with respect to the systemic segregation of children with disabilities in our schools and communities. Then, legislation and regulations supporting access to inclusive opportunities will be provided. Participants will then be introduced to the "Pathway to Inclusion Checklist," which guides families through the process of advocating for inclusive opportunities.

The Power of Advocacy: Social Movements in Disability Justice- F.R.E.E. Panel: FREE’s Speakers Bureau, Family Advocacy and FREE To BE advocacy groups will be facilitating afternoon workshops on the role of Advocacy in Disability Justice. The purpose of the workshops is to sensitize and enlist passion for social justice issues thru sharing personal stories of powerful experiences of disability injustice. The workshops will consist of facilitating small group discussions on learned advocacy skills. The Speakers Bureau and Family Advocacy Groups will share personal experiences of speaking with NYS and local legislators, mobilizing coalitions to promote causes like “BeFair2DirectCare” and growing the advocacy movement thru outreach to schools and community organizations. FREE To BE representatives will share the challenging experience of being gay and disabled, called the “Second Closet”, and advocacy efforts made in the formation of the New York State LGBT Advocacy Coalition. True advocacy is about building bridges thru our support and communication networks.

Advocating for Animal Assisted Interventions: Workshop participants will learn advocacy strategies utilized by organizations that work with people with psychiatric and physical disabilities to ensure access to assistance animals to achieve and maintain independence and autonomy. These organizations understand the multiple ways in which non-human animals improve the lives of people with disabilities.

Stop Forced Psychiatric "Treatment": How You Can Get Involved-Assoc. for Mental Health & Wellness: This workshop will give an overview of recent and on-going battles for human rights protections of those involved with psychiatry. We will cover mad activism, involuntary hospitalization, the FDA move to try to down-classify the safety level of the shock device, iatrogenic effects of psychiatric places, and historical and current racist and classist realities of psychiatric industries. Participants will get an overview of the current battlefield and ideas for how they can get involved in the fight.

Barrier Busters: Making Suffolk County accessible for all-SILO Barrier Busters: This workshop will briefly discuss disability rights laws that protect people with disabilities from discrimination. It will discuss who Barrier Busters are and what we do. You will learn how through self-advocacy Barrier Busters intends to accomplish its mission of access for all.

Advocating for Students with Disabilities in High School English Classes:This workshop will provide concrete suggestions for how an English or writing class can be made more accessible for students with disabilities, especially language-related disabilities such as dyslexia. This workshop will show how to advocate for more inclusive English language arts classroom curriculum, strategies, assignments, and assessments. It will provide arguments and suggestions most likely to convince English teachers, parents, principals, and other authorities to use more inclusive, accessible teaching methods and materials.

Thoughts on "Doing" Disability Justice: In this workshop, participants will think about what it means to take an intersectional and coalitional approach to disability justice. We will discuss different models of disability and the disability justice framework and how thinking through these might impact advocacy work. We will also consider the role that intersectionality and multiple axes of oppression might play in disabled people's daily experiences. The goal of this workshop is to complicate what we mean by "disability" to include factors such as structural oppression and everyday violence. Participants will come away with both a more nuanced view of disability and the ability to strategically essentialize.

Advocacy Starts with You-Hofstra University: This workshop will highlight self-awareness and personal story telling as a critical advocacy tool. Youth and adults with disabilities often struggle to find the right balance between "fitting in" to society and demanding equal access. This workshop will teach participants to help their clients find their voices.

Self-Advocacy: A Practical Approach to Grassroots Development-Self Advocacy Association NY: This workshop will support graduate students to learn innovative multi-sensory approaches and strategies designed to teach people with developmental and other disabilities about advocacy, their rights and responsibilities and how to take their rightful place at society's table. We will explore meeting programmatic goals while honoring the person, their abilities and talents. This workshop will include a hands-on experience using group discussion and activity to enhance and develop social-advocacy groups. Participants will learn about self-advocacy, best practice, empowerment and putting ideas to action. The goal will be to provide students with resources, strategies and connections to develop positive group interactions with successful outcomes. Compassionate, Rigorous Advocacy at its best!