Welcome from the Commissioner (continued…)

To strengthen and enhance self-advocacy efforts in our states and nationally, the Commissioner of the Administration on Developmental Disabilities has asked the ADD Network to work with Self Advocates Becoming Empowered (SABE), State Developmental Disabilities Services Agencies and other state partners to hold a series of regional self-advocacy summits. The purpose of the summits is four-fold:

1. to assess what is currently happening in the states in self-advocacy – the support structures, activities, accomplishments and challenges;
2. to plan steps we can take to strengthen and enhance current efforts at the state level;
3. to develop recommendations for actions that we can take at the national level; and
4. to develop policy recommendations that can lead to a stronger, more effective, and long lasting self-advocacy movement across the country.

Our hope is that these summits will bring together the leadership of the developmental disabilities field to energize and guide our efforts to support the self-advocacy movement at both a state and national level.

Sincerely,

Sharon Lewis

Commissioner of the Administration on Developmental Disabilities