Name: Jessica Dickson
Date: 12-2-2022
Advocacy Area of Interest
My Action Plan will be advocating about bringing the importance of how we need to be more educated about
Autism or the special needs community.
Analysis/Research into the interest area
After determining what area I was going to do whether it was abuse in the special needs community
especially the domestic violence or autism awareness in a way they both connected with each other so I was
able to find a lot of background information as to what triggers behaviors and how we can stem students to
help control their urges and why this was important to bring awareness to.
Personal Narrative
Autism Awareness is something that o motivates me more to not only help people but also strive to speak
about it to others and form that connection. Connecting with my students when they are in the midst makes
me fight for them more since they feel they don't have a voice and the fact that trusting people is definitely
something that is hard for anyone. I still have my trust issues and working through them and when my
students come to me I’m there just to listen to them and just be that ear for them to vent and be there for
them when they need me the most.
Advocacy Partner Organization
The organization that I have partnered with is Kern Autism Network located in Bakersfield, Ca. This is a
local, non profit, organization that helped find resources for parents and teachers to help bring awareness of
what Autism is. They started in 1996, and since then have branched out into the state and national
organizations such as Easter Seals and Autism Speaks to help bring awareness countrywide to inform our
leaders on how researching and funding for Autism is. They have also partnered with our state officials such
as Shann Grove, Kevin Mccarthy, and Vince Fong, to help educate our teachers and bring them resources
and grants to help them in their educational journeys to bring a voice to parents that dont understand and
inform them that it's not a mental disease but something much more.
Interview
I interviewed Mrs. Carter on November 12, 2022. This was a very informative interview as she shared what
she does and also how she has advocated for her students to help them get the resources and the help that
they need. The school district that she works for has been very supportive in her journey as we both spoke
on the experience of how we worked for a district that wasn't very supportive and the fact they didn't support
Special Education at all.
This interview helped me develop a better action plan and also with my partner organization present at a few
events or even in front of the school board on why Autism Awareness is important and also how we can
research more on how we can determine and stem behaviors from our students.
Objectives
With Time and Research my objective is to be able to propose my plan and show how I have advocated my
plan into action by partnering with the Kern Autism Network of Kern County to help bring awareness into the
community and also in the educational field.
Targets
My targets will be parents, teachers, and local and state government officials to help advocate how we can
help develop more programs for educators and parents to help them know what Autism is. This has been a
passion of mine and one of the reasons why I'm becoming a Special education teacher and an advocate for
my students.
Opponents
Local and state officials: They are my biggest opponents since in order to provide research to help bring
funding or even programs they have to know that you are serious about what you are proposing and also if
the funding is available to advocate for.
Parents: little is known about bringing awareness and some tend to pushback on things they don’t know
Teachers: sharing thoughts and experience can help them educate their parents in this cause is important
Key Messages
My key message is to make people aware that it's okay to be different and Autism isn't a disability but an
ability to be unique and mysterious. “Before an effective action can begin, a potential advocate must first
understand the issue” (Hoefer, 2019).
Activities
Actionable Item Description Deadline
Pre-Data Google Survey members of target 11/10/2022- 11/15/2022
audiences emphasizing variance
factors.
Advocation through Education Create physical and virtual 11/16/2022- 11/22/2022
pamphlets and release them to
target audiences
Post-data In-person survey members of 11/23/2022- 11/25/2022
target audiences
(leadership/community)
Google Survey members of target
audiences emphasizing variance
factors.
Narrative Assessment Emphasize advocacy efforts to 11/25/2022- 11/26/2022
Special Educational members and
community members
Data
Reflect/Refine
This has been a very informative learning experience for me since partnering with Kern Autism Network.
Working behind the scenes and honing in my craft and learning from others from different perspectives on
how this is important to them and the community made me be more passionate about it.
I’m actually in the process of speaking at an event before I leave for graduation so I will post a picture here
and show the event!
Follow-Up
Your partner organization will receive a copy of your work including your signature assignment paper and
presentation. You should share with them your work along the way and when you have finished give
suggestions based on your work. Your advocacy project should be able to be handed off to someone else
within the organization to continue to be a part of the organization.
Bibliography
Know the early signs of autism. Kern Autism Network. (n.d.). Retrieved November 13, 2022, from
https://kernautism.org/
5 do's and don'ts for supporting friends with kids with autism. Autism Speaks. (n.d.). Retrieved November 13,
2022, from https://www.autismspeaks.org/blog/5-dos-and-donts-supporting-friends-kids-autism
Autistic Self Advocacy Network. (2022, October 31). Retrieved November 13, 2022, from
https://autisticadvocacy.org/
Narrative Paragraph, Advocacy Journals, Google Forms
