Abstract
Literature from community-based advocacy programs show positive social outcomes, including increased self-advocacy among participants. Toward this end, a partnership among an OT program and a Center for Independent Living has formed an advocacy workshop for community members. The purpose of this presentation is to discuss the outcomes of this workshop. Participants will learn about the importance of evidence for the use of advocacy-building within OT practice.
Primary Author and Speaker: Audrey Tarbutton
Additional Authors and Speakers: Rachel Bendewald, Stefanie Austin
Contributing Authors: Jennifer Summers, Hayley Monforte
Literature concerning community-based advocacy programs show positive social outcomes including increased self-advocacy and improved engagement in communities (i.e. Umeda et al., 2017; Kramer, 2015). Toward this end, a partnership among an occupational science and therapy program and Disability Advocates of Kent County (a Center for Independent Living) has formed an advocacy workshop for community members using principles guided by the Midwest Academy Manual for Activist. The purpose of this presentation is to introduce the participant to the implementation of these advocacy workshops, discuss the relationship between advocacy and community participation for population-based occupational therapy, and to disseminate preliminary results from a program evaluation of this workshop using quantitative pre and post attitudinal questionnaires to assess its effectiveness in building advocacy-related skills among its users. Participants included people with a range of disabilities and were recruited at the first workshop day, in which they completed the pre-workshop questionnaire. The workshop consisted of five sessions with participants completing the post-workshop questionnaire at the fifth session. The workshop was found to be effective for building self-advocacy skills among participants, which demonstrates the importance of evidence for the use of advocacy-building within occupational therapy practice.
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