Upcoming Events

Community Education and Awareness

In direct response to the interests expressed by self-advocates, families, providers, and agency leaders in attendance at the Our Lives, Our Voices! conference, the Partnership for People with Disabilities and the New Voices committee members will coordinate four public education events. These events will be held in Tidewater, Central Virginia, Northern Virginia, and Southwest Virginia.

Two Primary audiences will be targeted:

• Self advocates and families; and
• Civically active community groups

The events will incorporate the use of the New Voices video and will be designed to elicit a grassroots response by each group. Audiences will be encouraged to plan projects of their own choosing in their own communities that will influence attitudes and practices with regard to the full community inclusion of people with disabilities.

For a schedule of the community education and awareness events, please click on the link to the left. If you have any questions about the events or would like to schedule your own community education event, please contact Rachel Valenti - at (804) 828-1356 or valentir@vcu.edu

Self Advocacy Focus Groups

The primary purpose of holding focus groups is to hear directly from self-advocates about what they want and need in terms of building effective self-advocacy networks within the state. The focus groups which will be held in Richmond, Fairfax, Virginia Beach, and Blacksburg will be facilitated by Human Services Research Institute, Inc. After the focus groups are completed, the New Voices Committee will develop a report of focus group findings to be used in determining the New Voice Initiative’s next steps.

 

If you have questions about the focus groups, please contact Dana Yarbrough at (804) 828-0352 or dvyarbrough@vcu.edu