Diversity Fellows Grant Project Leads to Leadership Opportunity for Self Advocates (NM LEND)

June 13, 2017

NM LEND Self-Advocacy fellow Laurel Deans with binder from Advocate Leadership Academy

As a New Mexico LEND Self-Advocacy trainee, Daniel Ekman worked with faculty mentor Phyllis Shingle to create a document with leadership competencies, objectives and activities for people with disabilities. The idea was to develop a document that organizations could use and adapt as part of their own leadership curriculum for individuals with disabilities.

As a Diversity Fellow, Daniel used this same document in his work with the New Mexico Developmental Disabilities Planning Council (DDPC) as they developed their new 14-week Advocate Leadership Academy program. The competencies were adapted to serve as the core curriculum for the Academy, including a self-assessment for program fellows. The mission of the Academy is to build and refine leadership abilities in interested persons with diverse disabilities from a variety of communities in New Mexico by providing learning opportunities, resources and hands-on experiences.

The vision is that the Advocate Leadership Academy will produce Advocate Leaders who can then teach the program to others throughout the state of New Mexico. By 2021, there will be Regional Resource Networks in every region of New Mexico. These Regional Resource Networks will be facilitated, organized and maintained by Advocate Leaders from local communities.