National Self-Advocacy Movement

The idea of the National Self-Advocacy movement has been around for a long time, but this version came to be when Learning Disability England (LDE) applied for funding to a charity called Nesta who are supporting lots of social movements.

LDE then invited five different self-advocacy groups to fo​rm the initial social movement.

These groups are My Life My Choice, Bemix, Sunderland People First, Lewisham Speaking Up and Changing Lives.

As a group, we named ourselves the Self-Advocacy Coalition

The goal of this movement is to give self-advocacy a stronger voice so that organisations such as the NHS will listen to us.

A lot of the stuff we are doing as a movement still needs to be done but we have lots of ideas.

In the future we hope to work on things such as paid work for people with learning disabilities, getting people out of long stay hospitals and having self-advocacy groups in all areas of the country.

So far we have had lots of meetings and attended a conference on self-advocacy in Blackpool.

Most recently, we received training on ‘Framing’ to help us work out our key messages and tell our stories in a way that really makes a difference.

Self-advocacy is really important because it gives a voice to people with learning disabilities and gives us choice over our own lives.

We believe it is better if all self-advocacy groups work together on specific issues and campaigns rather than staying in our own little bubbles.

We are stronger together!

This blog was written by MLMC self-advocate Ben – supported by Imogen – for Advocacy Awareness Week 2019.