We ask Kya, “Are you nervous?” She smiles confidently and says, “No, I’ve done this lots.” She is clearly comfortable as she steps in front of the opening PowerPoint slide and addresses the audience with a question: “Who is a self-advocate?” From there, she guides everyone present to her key message – everyone here is a self-advocate.
Kya and Yoshi introduced the self-advocates initiative, “Bethesda Advocates in Action”, to a group of 25 participants in a town hall meeting in Chilliwack.
That’s her main goal of this first town hall meeting – to communicate to people supported at Bethesda that they are invited to become self-advocates and to introduce a few ways they can participate. Her co-presenter and fellow self-advocate, Yoshi, says “The most important thing is that people know we’re putting a system in place for people to join in as self-advocates.”
Yoshi is speaking about the Bethesda initiative to encourage self-advocacy agency-wide so anyone who wishes—at any level of engagement—can participate. One of Bethesda’s strategic plan goals is to empower people receiving services as leaders and decision-makers. We think there is no better way than encouraging self-advocates to promote participation and leadership from their fellow self-advocates.
Kya and Yoshi are members of the Bethesda Self-Advocates Advisory Committee (SAA Committee), along with four other self-advocates. The SAA committee meets directly with CEO Tori Dalair and other members of the leadership team regularly to provide input and guidance on leadership decisions that matter to self-advocates across the organization.
Some of the decisions made by this committee include a recent video project ensuring self-advocates can create their own videos as part of the orientation process for new staff. The committee told Bethesda’s senior leadership that a video avoids people having to retell potentially traumatic stories every time they experience a new staff, as well as for them to share with their voice how they’d like to be supported and what is important to them. To help the committee ensure they are hearing the collective voice across the organization, they decided to facilitate town hall meetings and conduct a survey to hear from all the self-advocates across the organization. The hope is that this survey will help the committee hear what is important to their fellow self-advocates and determine Bethesda’s goals for year 3 of the 5-year strategic plan. As leaders on the SAA committee, they carry a responsibility to ensure they are representing the request of the collective self-advocates across the organization.
At this first town hall meeting of self-advocates in Chilliwack, the round tables arranged around the large room are full. There are people from so many of Bethesda’s services: home share, staff-supported homes, supported independent living and community inclusion. People are listening closely and asking questions. Kya and Yoshi explain a couple of ways people can exercise their right to speak up for themselves – by making a video about themselves and completing a survey.
Scenes from the Chilliwack Town Hall
Kya and Yoshi show a sample of Kya’s video about herself. Yoshi encourages the audience that any one of them can create a video, no matter their abilities. There will be people to help them do it, from thinking about what they want to say to completing each step of the video production. A list of topics is available, and they can use it as a guide on what to talk about. They can also ask someone they trust to help them communicate what they want to convey. And it doesn’t even have to be a video. It can be a poster board, audio recording, or whatever they are comfortable doing. New staff can refer to it to better understand the person they are supporting, what is important to them, and how they’d like to be supported.
The self-advocate survey is an information-gathering tool that was first rolled out in 2022 to about 25 self-advocates at Bethesda. The responses gathered in the first survey offered insight and understanding of what was important to the people who are supported at Bethesda, such as what people were hoping for, what they were struggling with, and what would improve their quality of life. With its success, the advisory committee was eager to distribute the survey more widely.
Kya and Yoshi handed out copies of the survey for meeting participants to fill out at their tables and then went around to help people fill them out. Once the surveys were completed, there was pizza for lunch, names were drawn for the two-door prizes, and time for that very important goal of any meeting–developing friendships!
Self-advocates complete the survey at the town hall meeting. The responses will help the Self-Advocates Advisory committee hear what is important to their fellow self-advocates and determine Bethesda’s goals for year 3 of the 5-year strategic plan.
Over the past year, the SAA committee members have developed a plan to reach out to people-supported in all the regions where we support people as a way to build connections amongst each other and collect input from a broad cross-section of people.
As a first step, they have named themselves “Bethesda Advocates in Action”. The name conveys participation and engagement, which they are most enthusiastic about. Encouraged by the success of this first town hall meeting, they plan to meet with self-advocates across Bethesda in other regions, gathering in Chilliwack, Okanagan, Richmond, and Abbotsford.
Bethesda Advocates in Action is more than an initiative—it’s a movement to amplify voices, foster unity, and create meaningful connections. By empowering people with diverse abilities to share their stories and advocate for themselves, we improve not only the services we provide but also their confidence and sense of self. Together, we’re building a stronger, more inclusive community where everyone belongs.
