In This Issue:  New SUFU Resources Technical Assistance Training Advocacy Day Leadership Training Jon's Corner Kile's Corner Blog

March 2022 Newsletter Speaking Up For Us staff have been busy over the last month. We have been working on our Advocacy Day Series, planning our Leadership Training, and pulling together ideas for Regional In-Person conferences. The rest of our spring and summer is set to be a busy time as we start to see each other face to face! 

New SUFU Resources Speaking Up For Us has been creating resources that Self-Advocates can use with their staff, supporters, friends and family. These resources are free on our website and can be downloaded. You can also click on each picture below and they will take you to the downloadable pdf. They were created to help Self-Advocates speak up about what they wanted, lead a self-determined life, and make informed choices.

Technical Assistance Training Speaking up For Us is offering a FREE virtual training for people who receive HCBS services, and their Community Support staff as settings align their services to the Home and Community Based Settings Rule. If you would like to register for this training with your support person, the form is here.

Advocacy Day Our Advocacy Day series is returning to our Tuesday afternoon meetings in April! This is a three part series that will cover the following topics: Part 1 - How an Idea Becomes a law Part 2 - How does Government Work & What is Policy Anyway? Part 3 - Building Relationship with Legislators and Why?

Leadership Training! Leadership Training is back! If you would like to nominate someone for the SUFU leadership training please see the details below.

Jon's Corner Hi this is Jon. In the Central Maine Chapter one week we talked about relationships. It was great to hear from others and gave everyone something to think about. We also we were able to have a SUFU member and someone from his program visit the chapter and see what SUFU is about. I enjoyed the SARTAC meeting on the Peer 2 Peer Presentation from Connecticut. It had a lot of information and the SARTAC Members asked a lot of questions on the subject.  I have been also posting the flyers on Facebook. The one on Self-Advocacy to Self-Determination is my favorite. I hope these flyers help bring new people to SUFU.

Kile's Corner Hello to all the self-advocates! Kile here. I hope we are all so happy about spring. This last month has been a very busy time. I have been doing work with the Brain Injury Association of Maine and spreading the work about self-advocacy to their groups. It's fun to tell other people that they can speak up out for themselves and make changes in their lives.  I've also been attending the SARTAC meetings, and I get to meet a lot of people from different states. They work hard just like us. One of the topics that caught my eye is on how other states show how they self-advocate. I'm also happy to be back to doing the Technical Assistance project. We meet with different individuals and their support staff and talk about self-advocacy and self-determination. Keep up speaking up and we will be heard.

What's on the blog? Our Blog is a space where Self-Advocates share their stories. We invite you to check them out here. If you are a self-advocate that would like to submit an entry for our blog please reach out to Laurie Coldwell or Jon McGovern.

Finally We invite you to check out our website . Read our most recent blog post and subscribe to future blogs. You can also find the list of our chapter meetings, or follow us on Facebook. If you are a SUFU member we want you to join our members only Facebook Group. To do that please email Laurie Coldwell or Jon McGovern. We don't want you to miss anything.

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Have an Idea for Something to be in The Connector? Contact: Laurie Coldwell Program Manager (207) 956-1004 / Ext. 4 lcoldwell@sufumaine.org

SUFU CONNECTOR Speaking Up For Us of Maine 207-956-1004 www.sufumaine.org