Chatham-Savannah Citizen Advocacy

This quote from John O'Brien in Conversations on Citizenship and Person-Centered Work continues to resonate with us and remind us that we as a community miss out when there is not a place for everyone at the table... "People with disabilities have important contributions to make to our common life. They have a right to discover their distinctive ways to exercise the responsibilities of active citizenship. It demeans people with disabilities and deprives our communities to cast them into passive roles as clients to be supervised or consumers to be serviced. The proper role of human service, and the proper use of public money, is to support people to discover, develop, and deliver their contributions to the families, workplaces, schools, neighborhoods, networks and associations that define our communities.

And here is the original artwork that inspired Brittany Curry's video created by Mary Lawrence Kennickell

Going through the archives today and wanted to share this video by Brittany Curry - check the comments section for the piece that inspired Brittany's video by by local artist and past citizen advocate and board member Mary Lawrence Kennickell for us many moons ago. What do folks connected with one another in citizen advocacy relationships work towards together? Less segregation and special... and more inclusion and ordinary opportunities...

Brittany Curry's graphic illustration of a piece from our archives written by Tom Kohler encouraged us to find the original writing and share it with you here. Let us know what you think. https://www.savannahcitizenadvocacy.org/2020/09/08/savings/

What "savings" does citizen advocacy create? Brittany Curry offers a colorful answer to this question from a piece written by Tom Kohler.

Some great news from the Georgia Capitol on Citizen Advocacy Funding... THANK YOU!!!! THANK YOU!!!! A BIG Thanks to YOU, our allies, for making a difference.The Senate and the House passed a budget (and Gov Kemp signed) that includes funds for the Georgia Advocacy Office, which goes directly to local Citizen Advocacy programs throughout the state. Thank you for calling and writing to your local representatives.... SPECIAL THANKS TO: Amy Hughes, past board chair and citizen advocate, for advocating on our behalf, Katina Clay and The Georgia Advocacy Office, Rep. Carl Gilliard, Rep. Jesse Petrea, Rep. Craig Gordon, Rep. Ron Stephens, Rep. Mickey Stephens, Senator Ben Watson, Senator Lester Jackson, Senator Blake Tillery, and Rep. Terry England and their Staff, and the Board and Staff of Atlanta/Dekalb Citizen Advocacy - and to everyone who reached out in support of citizen advocacy in Georgia. We couldn’t do this without you, and we wouldn’t want to. Thank you for your support.

It's that time of the year when we thank our outgoing Board Members for their years of service. We usually do this at our Covered Dish Supper, but as that was not possible this year, we wanted to share these thank yous now. We have 6 talented and dedicated Board Members who will rotate off the Board on June 30th. We thank them so much for their years of service, their leadership, their perspectives, and their support of the model of citizen advocacy as a way to make Savannah ...more just and welcoming for people with developmental disabilities in our community. We will miss seeing you around the Board table - but you know that we will keep in good touch. Thank you all so much. Moncello Stewart has served 7 years and has Chaired the Board for the past 2 years. He also is the Chair of the Events Committee and has led the planning for the Covered Dish Supper. We look forward to planning with Moncello for the May 2021 Covered Dish Supper. Pat Lyons has served 6 years and Chaired the Board as we transitioned from longtime coordinator Tom Kohler to George Seaborough. He is a citizen advocate, and is past Chair of the Personnel Committee and the Program Committee. Erv Tate has served 6 years and has served on the Program Committee, the Events Committee, and helps recruit citizen advocates on behalf of people with developmental disabilities. Kate Rea has served 3 years as Treasurer and has served on the Events Committee and Finance Committee. Kate's mother Sherry Erskine was a citizen advocate for many years and Kate grew up with the ideas and ideals of citizen advocacy. Billy Robinson (pictured with his wife Teri) has served for 6 years, is a past citizen advocate, has Chaired the Ways and Means Committee for 6 years, and is a founder (along with Quentin Marlin and Jon Pannell) of the Oysters on the Bluff fundraiser. Billy Behrens has served for 6 years and has served on the Events Committee and the Ways and Means Committee and planning the Oysters on the Bluff fundraiser each year.

We have heard from many citizen advocates, proteges, friends and supporters who have been missing the Annual Covered Dish Supper this May. We have missed breaking bread together with all of you this year, but many of you may remember being interviewed by our friend Dave Hasbury and Patti Scott from Neighbours International for their video on the Covered Dish Supper and what it has meant to citizen advocacy and to Savannah. Take a look to see if you were "spotted" at the supp...er. Watch to the end to see a powerful citizen advocacy story from Chuck Jones told in the storytelling style of the Home Grown Good News portion of the program. Thank you so much Dave and Patti and to all who were interviewed and to all that come out each year to Keep the "Social" in "Social Change" and work together to make Savannah a place where everyone has a seat at our community table. https://youtu.be/5CXL_hqIRb4

This will be high quality information - and it’s free to participate today at 3 pm via Zoom.

Shared from our friend Beth Mount and the Syracuse Cultural Worker.

This is one of several magazines we subscribe to at the citizen advocacy office for inspiration and good ideas. If you have not heard of Yes Magazine, check it out. And this story is timely.