Encore Services embarked on a project to train people with disabilities about their rights, realizing dreams, and how to use their voice for self-advocacy and civic engagement. The project was called Finding Your Voice.

We started the project by scheduling a workshop that was advertised and open to the public.

The workshop taught the attendees:

• Civil rights and civic engagement for people with disabilities
• How to articulate a dream to someone.
• How to use their voices to request changes that would improve their lives.
• How to be a self-advocate at conferences, luncheons, day programs, in groups, and at home.
• How important it is to vote for candidates who care about the rights of people with disabilities.

The Finding Your Voice workshop included:

• The steps to self-expression.
• Overcoming fear and self-consciousness.
• How to speak and act dynamically.
• Completing worksheets that listed dreams, rights, and paths to self-advocacy.

There were nine volunteers who provided the voice acting for short videos that captured the information they wrote on their worksheets. After their videos were all stitched together, Encore provided a premiere showing of the final Finding Your Voice video. Please use the link to view the culmination of months of hard work!