Individual advocacy is done by teaching the individual self-advocacy skills. MHI staff does not act as one to one advocate in any legal setting. We believe the key to true empowerment is full knowledge of one’s rights, how those rights are protected, and how to utilize the laws that provide those protections. In gaining self-advocacy skills individuals can learn how to communicate and negotiate with agencies, service providers, employers, and others to obtain needed benefits, services or accommodations.
Do you want to take control of your own life and influence the community around you?
Systems Advocacy is done when MHI staff and advocates work for a positive change in the community, working to create awareness of the barriers to participation by persons with disabilities, and how such barriers can be removed.
Through public awareness activities, events, and participation in the legislative process, MHI works to promote and affect positive changes on the local, state, and federal level. Systems advocacy focuses on changing public policies that will help individuals with disabilities and will assist in the full inclusion of persons with disabilities in the communities we serve.
Here are ways we can enact larger systems changes: