Advocates Alliance Begins New Grant

The Developmental Disabilities Planning Council awarded the Advocates Alliance Project to The Arc of New Mexico in collaboration with the Center for Development and Disability.

The purpose of the Advocates Alliance Project is to create and test a community-based quality improvement process that will be voluntary, consumer centered, and locally based. Teams made up of people with developmental disabilities and traumatic brain injury, families/guardians, and community members will work together, along with providers, to assess the quality of life of consumers and to develop and implement intervention strategies. Assessment will be based upon a quality of life survey tool and direct contact with persons being served including visits to homes, worksites, and recreational activities.

Mike Allen is the Statewide Project Coordinator. He has a daughter with a developmental disability and he has a strong background in community building and advocacy efforts on behalf of individuals with disabilities and their families.

The Advocates Alliance is working to create these outcomes:

1. People with developmental disabilities and traumatic brain injury will have the quality of life that they want through self-advocacy and community supports.
2. The community, through education and awareness, will be more inclusive of people with developmental disabilities and traumatic brain injury.
3. The community will maintain any grassroots alliances created by the project.
4. Team members lives will be enriched from their experiences.
5. The Alliance will create a model to be used elsewhere in New Mexico and other states for advocacy and assistance for individuals with developmental disabilities and traumatic brain injury.

The Advocates Alliance is projected for three years. Communities targeted are: year 1 - Socorro, Zuni, year 2 - Las Vegas, Coyote Canyon, and year 3 - Artesia, Santa Fe.

Guides in local areas will identify and recruit volunteer team members to facilitate assessments and interventions and conduct community education activities. Training for guides and team members will enable them to examine issues such as health and safety, power and choice, inclusion, relationships, dignity and self-determination. Jim Wolf and Rueben Ghahate have been hired as community guides in Socorro and Zuni, respectively. Both are knowledgeable, connected and trusted members of their communities.

Advocates Alliance will make every effort to collaborate with other agencies, individuals and groups within each community. For more information or to volunteer, please call Mike Allen at (505) 272-1044