Internship II: My Personal Advocacy Journey

A quote that i find inspirational regarding the role that advocacy can have in the lives of young children and families is, "How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world."  ~Anne Frank

My advocacy plan is focused on advocating for parents who have a child with a special need.  I want to be able to help parents understand what is involved in the IEP process and what services their child will receive after he or she is determied eligible for early intervention services.  What inspires and excites me most about my advocacy plan and being an advocate is helping parents learn how to best use the IEP process as an effective tool to obtain the appropriate special education and related services that are available for their child.  Learning that a child may have a special need is a very overwhelming experience for parents and they need someone on their side that can help make sense out of all of the jargon that is used during the IEP meeting.  I am also excited and inspired by the fact that I will have an opportunity to educate parents on the importance of early intervention and how they can be a partner in their child's education in order to help them to become successful throughout their school years, as they are their child's first and most important teacher.

The challenge I feel related to engaging in the advocay efforts that I have targeted is related to school funding.  Often times a child is in need of a Paraprofessional or a one-on-one aide in the classroom that has been chosen as the least restrictive environment and school officials simply state that they do not have funding for this.  This upsets me deeply as I have witnessed how extremely difficult it is for a teacher to provide one-on-one attention to a child who has a special need, such as Autisim when there are sixteen other childen in the classroom who also need her attention.  This is not beneficial to the child or the other children in the classroom.  I believe that all children deserve to have the opportunity to be successful in an early childhood classroom regardless of funding issues.  I have also seen the great strides that can be made for a child with Autisim who was provided with a one-on-one aide by the school system and would love to have the opportunity to advocate for this.

I believe that I can be most effective in helping me to overcome my challenging emotions I am feeling with regard to presenting and implementing my Advocacy Action Plan by presenting to school officials the benefits that a one-on-one aide provides to a child as well as helping them look into other funding resources that may help provide this to a child.

I feel that I can encourage others in their advocacy efforts by letting them know that I believe in their efforts and I fully support them.  I can also offer input as to why I believe their Advocacy Plan is worth pursuing and how I believe it to be beneficial to faimilies and children.  I believe that others can encourage me by letting me know if they agree with my advocacy efforts as well as any others ideas they may have that will help my Advocacy Plan to become successful.