Tools: Self-Advocacy
The Tools You Need
These are our favorite resources we've gathered to incorporate into our work aimed at helping people with disabilities achieve their employment goals.
- Dude, Where’s my Transition Plan? - Multiple transition planning worksheets as well as checklists and discussions of self-advocacy that speak directly to youth with disabilities, From PEATC, the PTI for Virginia.
- Teen Activity: How Well Do You Know Yourself?
- Let’s Get To Work – Self-Determination Handbook - Provides information and resources related to the development of student engagement, self-determination, and self-advocacy and leadership skills.
- Georgia Transition Manual – Self Determination - A comprehensive self-determination and self-advocacy guide for students with disabilities.
- Connecticut’s Stepping Forward – Self-Advocacy Guide - Created for middle and high school students with disabilities as an instructional tool for the development of self-advocacy skills and transition planning.
- Personal Preferences Indicator: A Guide for Planning - A guide to learn the personal preferences of a person with a developmental disability. From the University of Oklahoma.
- In the Driver’s Seat: Six Workshops to Help with Transition Planning and Self Advocacy for Youth with Special Needs - Youth experience hands-on learning that helps them achieve adult, life goals. With encouragement and support, young adults identify their skills, interests, and needs, and work toward improving their ability to self-advocate. From the Vermont Family Network.
- Roadtrip Nation - Stories of people who overcame challenges and defined success for themselves, like Gary Vaynerchuk, John Legend, Michelle Obama, Joe Rogan, and more.
- Map It: What Comes Next Module - Provides lesson plans, materials, and resources needed for educators and professionals to actively engage and guide students in the development of their self-determination and self-advocacy skills. From the Described and Captioned Media Program.
- Building Self-Advocacy and Self-Care Management Skills - Suggestions and insights for parents to build their youth’s self-advocacy skills at home, especially with respect to health care and management. Includes videos. From the PACER's National Parent Center on Transition and Employment.
- ME! Lessons for Teaching Self-Awareness & Self-Advocacy. - Developed to help educators teach students critical transition skills. Lessons include self-advocacy, learning rights, improving communication skills. From the Zarrow Center for Learning Enrichment, University of Oklahoma.
- Self-Advocacy: Tips for Teens - A short tip sheet to learn about self-advocacy. At the bottom, enjoy the two videos of youth with disabilities talking about their own self-advocacy. From the Utah Parent Center.
- Whose Future Is It Anyway? - Helps prepare students for their IEP meetings and gain self-determination skills. Comes with a Coach’s Guide that outlines the lessons, how to teach them, the roles of the students and teachers, as well as expected outcomes. Developed by The Center for Parent Information & Resources (CPIR).
- Connect to a Mentor - Youth who have mentors are more likely to graduate from high school, have improved soft skills, and greater self-confidence. And these are just a few of the benefits!
- Healthy dating and relationships - Loveisrespect is the ultimate resource to empower youth to prevent and end dating abuse. It is a project of the National Domestic Violence Hotline.