North East Wales Self Advocacy
NEWSA stands for North East Wales Self Advocacy. The three counties covered by NEWSA are the same as Systems Advocacy Service (SAS), but the work carried out is different in that the focus is on enabling individuals to be able to speak up for themselves.
A lot of this is achieved by the work done in the self-advocacy groups, by giving them:
- Relevant information
- Facilitating their self advocacy meetings
- Promoting their skills
- Encouraging them to work together as a team
- Making sure they have proper representation and support at the meetings or consultations and decisions are being made with THEM and not for them
- To enable a democratic way that they can elect an appropriate member from their group who will be the vital link between services and adults with learning disabilities
- To give individuals the time and respect of working at their pace, recognising it will be lost if the meeting is rushed to suit services needs
One of the outcomes for being a member of a NEWSA group is that information, recognition and inclusion lead to a building of self-confidence. Nothing feels better than being a valued member of our community. One size fits all, disability or no disability.
In the counties of Wrexham, Flintshire and Denbighshire we have members from the self-advocacy groups who are elected members forming part of their local county council strategic planning meetings. In each of these counties we have a self-advocate that facilitates and organises the meetings.
The development worker is more of a supporting role to make the meeting more service user friendly, e.g. jargon and abbreviation free, allowing the individual to make more sense of the information so they become a meaningful member who can participate actively.
Communication-information -dissemination are key aspects of the work undertaken and lead to the future development. This being recognised by Denbighshire has taken on a part time post specifically to do this much work.
Please contact us if you have a projects-related enquiry.
