Blog post by: Matthew Kennedy When individuals apply to the Endeavour Program, one aspect I always try to get a sense of is how advocacy factors into their daily life. Does the student rely on self-advocacy only? Do they have parents, relatives, or caregivers who advocate for them? Do they have a friend who looks out for them? Do they have access to a social worker, or another kind of field professional? Fortunately, many of our applicants and current students do have people advocating for them, and many of them are very strong self-advocates. But, unfortunately, quite often the student or family does not appear to have too many people on their side. If this is the case, I do my best to provide them with the appropriate guidance. Have they considered connecting with a citizen-advocacy organization? Do they have a file with the CIUSSS for CLSC or readaptation centre services? If so, what kinds of services does the individual or the family benefit from? If not, why not? Are they lacking the correct information? Are they on a waitlist for services? Have they been offered services, but found them inadequate in some way? Sometimes, folks just need to be pointed in the right direction, and that's one of the things we try to help with at Endeavour. While our primary objective is helping adult learners become more autonomous through school-based training and programming, we also do our best to connect students with various advocates in the community, as an important part of becoming more autonomous has to do with learning how to advocate for yourself, but also learning how to access appropriate services so as to connect with professionals and volunteers whose role it is to advocate for you as well. In fact, "Use of Community Resources" is one of the fields of skills we teach at Endeavour, and, further, the Ministry's Social Integration Program Guide highlights the importance of the Adult Education Centre's staff cooperating and collaborating with advocates in the adult learner's life, and these include parents, caregivers, family members, friends, field professionals, and even volunteers! And so, while the A in "Endeavour" may be for "autonomy," to me at least, it also stands for "advocacy," and that's why it's so important that we teach students to advocate for themselves, but also how to seek out advocates in the community, and, of course, to remember that as educators we are also key advocates for every single one of our students.
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May 2019
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