Newsletter of the Association for Self Advocacy
Topic of the issue: Self-advocacy
Issue 27
Editorial Dear self-advocates, we wrote about many different topics in past issues of our newsletter. We wrote about the rights of persons with intellectual disabilities and we often mentioned the word self-advocacy. Now we decided to dedicate a whole issue of the Voice of Self-Advocates newsletter to the topic of self-advocacy. Now you can learn what is self-advocacy and how the movement of self-advocacy began. You can also learn how and where you can self-advocate. Some self-advocates shared their personal experience and talked about how self-advocacy helped them. Self-advocacy can help in advocating and exercising rights for persons with intellectual disabilities. Finally, you can read the news and find out what’s new from the last issue of the newsletter.. Have a good time while reading our newsletter!
Editor Senada Halilčević Journalists Hrvoje Forner Snježana Kanjir Tomislav Ivašković Nenad Sekušak Assistants Kristina Klišanin Ivana Poslon Hrvoj Damjan Janjušević Pictograms and symbols: © Widgit Software tel: +44 1223 425558, web: www.widgit.com Pictograms used for making the magazine front cover have been downloaded at: www.flaticon.com Authors of the pictograms: Tomas Knop, Dot on Paper and Freepik
Resources for implementation of the Program have been provided by the Ministry of Demography, Family, Youth and Social Policy. This doesn’t mean that the Ministry of Demography, Family, Youth and Social Policy completely agrees with the content of this publication.
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What is self-advocacy? Self-advocacy is speaking in your name and fighting for your rights. Persons with intellectual disabilities who fight for their right are called self-advocates. Often other people make the decision in the name of person with intellectual disability. Think for yourself: • Who decided where and with whom you live? • Who decides how will you spend your money? • Is somebody forbidding you to be in a relationship? • Who decides how will you spend your free time?
If other people make important decisions about your life, self-advocacy can help you take control and responsibility over your own life. You can self-advocate for yourself whenever you think that your rights are being violated. You can also be a part of the self-advocacy group. Members of the self-advocacy group are persons with intellectual disabilities who self-advocate for themselves. The group can work together to solve the problems of self-advocates.
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How the self-advocacy movement began? In the past, many rights of persons with intellectual disabilities have been severely violated. Unfortunately, this is still happening today. In many countries, persons with intellectual disabilities still: • go to special schools separately from other students • live in special institutions separeted from other people • can not vote in elections • have a guardian who makes all the decisions for them • can not be married • do not have a job • can not decide how they want to spend their money • are victims of abuse. Before, people thought that persons with intellectual disabilities were incapable and treated them like children. Many people thought that people with intellectual disabilities can not speak for themselves and that they should only listen the orders from other people. They called them offensive names and tried to exclude them from the society. That is why the movement of self-advocacy began in 1968 in Sweden.
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Self-advocacy movement in 1986 in Sweden In 1986 the parents of children with disabilities held a meeting and spoke on behalf of their children. Persons with intellectual disabilities who were at the meeting decided that they want to speak for themselves. So they made a list of things they want to change. Similar meetings were held in England and Canada. After a few years, the first conference where self-advocates spoke for themselves was held. Self-advocates who organized the conference named their group People first. By choosing this name, they wanted to send a message that they are tired of being called retarded and that they are people like everyone else. After that conference, the movement of self-advocacy spread all over the world. The first conference for self-advocates from all around the world was held in 1984 in the US city of Washington. Today there are a lot of self-advocacy groups all around the world. European self-advocacy groups are gathered in the European Platform of Self-Advocates, shortly named EPSA.
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How the self-advocacy movement started in Croatia? In 2003 Association for Self-Advocacy was founded. Before the foundation of the Association, self-advocates held their meeting in self-advocacy groups. Self-advocacy groups were held in: • Association for Promoting Inclusion • club Squirrel of the Association for supporting persons with intellectual disability of Zagreb city Self-advocates founded the Association for Self-Advocacy. Today there are self-advocacy groups in 16 Croatian cities. If you live in Zagreb, you can come to the self-advocacy meeting in the Association for self-advocacy. The meetings are held in the office of the Association at Međimurska 19. Meetings are held: • Monday at 15:30 • Tuesday at 15:30 • Friday at 16:00. At the meetings we talk about topics that are important to self-advocates. In the self-advocacy group you can learn about your rights and how you can self-advocate for yourself.
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You can meet other people with intellectual disabilities, hang out with them and hear their life stories. You can come to the meeting if you have some questions or a problem. We will listen to you and try to help you. If you don’t live in Zagreb, you can find self-advocacy groups or associations in 16 Croatian cities. You can find self-advocacy groups in these cities: • Osijek
• Koprivnica
• Belišće
• Čakovec
• Slavonski Brod
• Karlovac
• Pakrac
• Rovinj
• Grubišno Polje
• Pula
• Bjelovar
• Šibenik
• Sisak
• Split
• Varaždin
• Ploče
Contact us and we will help you to join self-advocacy group or association in one of these cities.
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What self-advocates think about self-advocacy? We asked self-advocates why do they come to self-advocacy meetings. Read their answers: • So I can learn something new about myself and because I don’t want my guardian to make all the decisions for me. • I don’t want other people to speak in my name. I want to speak up for myself when someone tells me something. I don’t want to be afraid of other people. When someone tells me that I can’t do something, I can say that I have a right to do what I want and that I will be responsible for the consequences of my actions. • I am an self-advocate because I want to protect my rights. Other people should not decide for me. • I am an self-advocate because I want to fight for my rights and rights of other persons with intellectual disabilities. If I decide that I want to go somewhere, no one can forbid it. If I do something wrong, I will be responsible for myself. You are not responsible for me. • For me, self-advocacy is when other people respect my needs, decisions and interests.
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Read what other self-advocates said about their experience:
Karlo: I heard about self-advocacy while I was in SloboĹĄtina Rehabilitation Center. I started coming to self-advocacy group because I wanted to be stronger and not afraid of anybody. I learned how I can protect myself so nobody can deceive me. I self-advocated for myself to leave the institution and I am very proud of that. My mother wanted me to stay in the institution, but I was persistent and finally I started living in the community. I started coming to the self-advocacy meetings in Association for Self-Advocacy. Here I learned what is property and how is in charge of my property. I was hired on a project about property rights. I had an opportunity to travel to self-advocacy conference at Novi Sad. I think that in the future we should work on the custody issue. It bothers me when people stop me on the street and ask me personal questions. Other people think we are miserable and feel sorry for us, but we are also people like them.
Petar: I heard about self-advocacy in Association for Promoting Inclusion. I started coming to self-advocacy meetings because I wanted to fight for my rights and rights of other self-advocates.
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I was a victim of discrimination many times. I have a right to live in the community and go wherever I want to just like other people. I worked as an self-advocate in Association for Self-Advocacy. I traveled a lot and educated other people about self-advocacy. I was also working on writing newsletters and brochures for self-advocates. I self-advocated in many places. Even on the market. There was a time when my neighbor was telling me I should live in the retirement home, but I told her I don’t want that. Some people even insulted me and called me crazy. I told them that I was a person with disability and that they should leave me alone. In the future we should include more people in our self-advocacy meetings. We can help more people with their problems. I want to send a message to other people that they should come to self-advocacy meeting so that they can learn to fight for their rights and interest.
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Taking actions! But it is not enough just to talk about problems. We should take actions that can help to solve that problem. With those actions, we can influence on decisions made in various social institutions. Association for Self-advocacy addressed a lot of issue. We organized different actions and tried to solve these issues. For example, before 2012 persons deprived of legal capacity couldn’t vote in the elections. Association for Self-Advocacy and GONG work together to solve this problem. We succeeded and today all persons deprived of legal capacity can vote in Croatia.
What are the issues that we deal with today? Today there are other problems self-advocates face. For example, persons deprived of legal capacity can not manage their money and property. Association for Self-Advocacy is working on resolving this issue.
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In our work to solve this problem, we organized these activities: • We held public discussions in different cities. • We talked about this issue with self-advocates from all around Croatia • We talked about this issue in media. • We made exhibition with property cards of self-advocates. • We wrote an easy to read brochure, newsletter and leaflet about property rights. • We recorded a short video about property rights. We did all that because we want self-advocates to know how they can manage their money and property. Living independently and being included in the community is very hard without any money. It is very challenging for self-advocates who can’t use their money to be fully included in the community and be equal with other citizens. This is a problem that many self-advocates face and more people should know about this problem. Self-advocates, their parents, guardians, social workers and politicians need to start dealing with this issue. It is very important that politicians and other people who make the decisions know about this problem. We will continue to work on protecting the property rights of self-advocates.
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news MEETING WITH EUROPEAN SELF-ADVOCATES Association for Self-Advocacy hosted a meeting in Zagreb for self-advocates and their assistants from: • Austria • Czech Republic • Spain • United Kingdom. Self-advocates talked about how they live in their country. We heard some good examples and new ideas. But we also talked about common problems self-advocates face. The meeting is part of the Erasmus+ project We are in this together, whose carrier is Rytmus from Czech Republic. City Assembly of the city of Zagreb co-funded the meeting. We look forward to the next meeting in Vienna!
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ROUND TABLE ON DEINSTITUTIONALIZATION We held a round table in the House of Europe with the support of the European Network for an Independent Life. The theme was the process of deinstitutionalization in Croatia and European Pillar of Social Rights. Self-advocates, experts, service providers and representatives of the Ministry of Demography, Family, Youth and Social Policy participated on the round table. We sent a message that placing adults with disabilities in foster families and homes is unacceptable. It is necessary to develop the support for persons with disabilities that will enable them to live independently and be included in the community.
TRAININGS WITH SELF-ADVOCATES FROM KARLOVAC Association for Self-Advocacy held workshops with self-advocates from Ozalj and Karlovac. At the workshops, self-advocates talked about human rights and self-advocacy. We also talked about legal capacity and property rights. Self-advocates from Zagreb shared their experience i gave their support to self-advocates form Ozalj and Karlovac. We hope that workshops empowered self-advocates from Karlovac and Ozalj to continue working and be even more active self-advocacy group.
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Workshops are part of the program Croatian Self-Advocacy Network support for active and included life in the community. Community Service Provider Ozalj is the partner in this program. The program is funded by the Ministry of Demography, Family, Youth and Social Policy.
sport news Several self-advocates achieved great results in various sport competitions. At the end of last year Tomislav Ivaskovic became the first person with intellectual disabilities who passed Judo exam for first dan black belt. Tomislav has been preparing hard for this exam, but eventually all his hard work paid off and Tomislav achieved his dream. With the support of his coach Rene Petrovic, Tomislav is now preparing for next challenges. Senada Halilcevic won the gold and bronze medal at the Taekwondo World Cup in Turkey. Senada became the first woman to won gold medal in her category. We hope that in the future Senada and coaching team from taekwondo club Cigra will achieve even more great results. Self-advocate Biserka Sambol also participated at the World Cup in Taekwondo in Turkey where she achieve a great result with a bronze medal in her category. We are very proud of all self-advocates and we wish them a lot of luck in future challenges! Glas samozastupnika
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CONTACT US:
Međimurska 19, 10 000 Zagreb Phone: 01 553 05 56, Fax: 01 553 05 56 E-mail: kontakt@samozastupanje.hr Visit our web page: www.samozastupanje.hr or our Facebook page.
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