Building the self-advocacy skills of youth and families: A practical and powerful strategy for youth advocates, education lawyers, and service providers
RQI Legal Empowerment Fall Webinar Series
The Right Question Institute (RQI) specializes in designing simple educational methods and tools to teach skills essential for self-advocacy and agency. RQI helps people working on the front lines of a range of systems build the ability of their clients to: a) ask better questions, and b) participate more effectively in decisions that affect their lives and the lives of their families.
In this interactive training session, participants will learn a practical method to:
- Strengthen clients’ sense of agency and voice as they navigate systems.
- Build the capacity of youth and families to advocate for themselves and take action on their own behalf in all places where decisions are being made that affect them, including in IEP meetings, school disciplinary hearings, the legal system, and beyond.
Participants will examine the method through an active learning experience, learn facilitation principles, and discuss applications to their work. After the session there will be opportunities for participants to receive personalized support in learning how to integrate the method into their practice.
Participants will also learn about a model to support the ability of families and youth to advocate for their needs in the school system. This model is outlined fully in “Partnering With Parents To Ask The Right Questions: A Powerful Strategy For Strengthening School-Family Partnerships” (Santana, Rothstein, and Bain, ASCD 2016) and is based on decades of experience working to promote family engagement with schools in low-income communities across the country.
At the end of the webinar, participants will receive a download link for supplemental resources, including the tool introduced in the webinar and a facilitation guide.
Who should attend: This webinar will be relevant to anyone interested in building the skills of youth and families to advocate for their needs. Youth advocates, education lawyers, disability rights activists, and direct service providers are especially encouraged to attend.
Cost: $20.00. Your registration fee helps us continue to offer trainings at a low cost for people across the country and beyond. Accessibility is very important to us. If you would be unable to attend this webinar otherwise, please reach out directly to naomi.campbell@rightquestion.org for a direct link to sign up at no cost.
Facilitators: Naomi Campbell, Director, Legal Empowerment Program; Luz Santana, Co-Founder, Co-Director, Democracy-Building Programs