From Advocacy to Activism


Life for parents of special needs children is one of advocacy out of necessity. Each time we attend an IEP meeting or insist that a healthcare professional make us part of the decision-making team for our child’s care, we are being an advocate. For some, there is a natural progression from advocacy to what I call activism. This is when we start to look at the conditions of our community  and take part in the movement to make those conditions better. When we arrived in Charleston Dennis and I had spent the first two years of Ben’s life being advocates with the doctors and school professionals. While Ben’s situation was set for the next couple of years we saw that there was much work to do to make sure that young people would have a Charles Webb Center to come to in the future as the school system slowly took control of the care for the youngest “at risk” children. Our fear was that Charleston County would begin to operate as the Richmond City schools making wonderful programs like the Charles Webb Center practically obsolete. Our activism really started as Dennis’ activism. While I was busy throwing myself into the challenges of a new job, Dennis was not only looking for his new job, but becoming the Charles Webb Center’s favorite parent advocate. He was perfect for the job because he is smart and very articulate. He was able to communicate exactly what other parents wanted to say, but were not always able to. Within months not only were we both active members of the Charles Webb Center parent advisory council, but Dennis had been appointed by Governor Carroll Campbell to the Disabilities Board of Charleston County. There he began to work not only for the good of school aged children, but became involved in program and group home access for adults with disabilities

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. This was a whole new ballgame; one that gave Dennis a firsthand look at how frustrating the bureaucracy of both state and local government can be. Through his work with the Disabilities Board we began to see that this struggle we were involved in would not end when Ben was done with school. This would be a lifetime commitment. It would be up to us to stand up for Ben’s rights until we were no longer able. What an awesome responsibility!

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One Response to From Advocacy to Activism

  1. Kim McBrayer says:

    totally agree.

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