What is self advocacy?

Self advocacy is people with learning difficulties speaking up for ourselves. Self advocacy has taken forward the idea that people with learning difficulties need to be listened to. Professionals and carers who run services for people with learning difficulties should ask us what we want because no one knows better than us ourselves.

Leeds People First are a self advocacy group. Our self advocacy group is for people with a learning difficulty to meet and:

• Share our experiences
• Support each other
• Learn to speak up
• Find out about our rights
• Let local services know what is important to us

Some of the things that self advocacy groups might talk about are:

• Local issues and things that are happening in the area
• General issues like getting a job, staying in good health, human rights etc
• Problems group members might have
• How to change things in people's lives.