I'm sitting with my feet up before our senate visits and got to thinking about the amazing young folks I am meeting who are the youth advocates -- Each of them Cameron from KY, Anake from Vermont, Katherine from ME Matt from Montana who has to come to Boston for treatment, all of them with unique stories to tell and each with a brave face, give me hope for the future :-)
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Wow what a day of travel and getting started!  My first session was with Christopher Kush from Soapbox Consulting where we were challenged to introduce ourselves to other advocates in the session based on 5 questions around advocacy. It was interesting to hear how others approached the questions. I was excited to see this year there was a Teen Meet and Greet for high school students from around the country with arthritis, their session focused on what to expect while in DC and how to stay con...
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Self-advocacy is the ability to speak-up for yourself and the things that are important to you. Self-advocacy means you are able to ask for what you need and want and tell people about your thoughts and feelings. Self-advocacy means you know your rights and responsibilities, you speak-up for your rights, and you are able to make choices and decisions that affect your life. The goal of self-advocacy is for YOU to decide what you want then develop and carry out a plan to help y...

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As an ambassador for the Arthritis foundation from the state of Maine I will be traveling to Washington DC March 24th through March 26th. I will be sharing my preparation for the trip as well as updating my experiences while in DC. To help you understand my journey I would  first like to share with you some definitions of advocacy. Tomorrow I will discuss my journey to becoming an advocate.

The Alliance for Justice defines advocacy as:

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