Self Advocates Becoming Empowered identified and provided information on six self-advocates to serve on the Policy Board for Project Leadership.
These individuals were: Tia Nelis, Cherie Tessier, Edward Sewell, Nancy Ward, David Young, Joe Wrinkle.

Background information was provided in the following areas, state of residence, ethnic origin, disability, leadership experience in the self advocacy movement, experience and knowledge of self determination and leadership training experiences.

SABE Project Leadership Coordinator, Self Advocate Liaison, and Chairperson participated in two conference calls, 10/8/99, 12/22/99 and in one meeting in Washington D.C 10/21/99 with other project management staff. SABE Chairperson James Meadours attended a meeting on 2/9/00 with Project Leadership partners. On 2/10/00 he, along with the other partners, met with Administration on Developmental Disabilities Commissioner Sue Swenson and Executive Directors of the National Association of Developmental Disabilities Councils and American Association of University Affiliated Programs.

SABE selected Chester Finn from New York as the Self Advocate Liaison for the project with James Meadours, SABE Chairperson as backup. Vicki Hicks Turnage was chosen by SABE as Project Leadership Coordinator.

SABE drafted an application for people who would like to be participants in the training sessions which was adopted by the project partners for distribution. SABE sent out the application in their Newsletter and posted it on their web page.

A conference call was held with Tom Nerney, National Office on Self-Determination, Chester Finn, Tia Nelis, James Meadours, Bonnie Shoultz, Mary Hayden, Jean Bowen and Vicki Turnage to develop a tentative outline for the self-determination training. This was done as we had a deadline for our first draft of January 15. SABE completed the outline and chose the materials to be used at our Board Meeting in Baton Rouge.

SABE sent out requests to self advocacy organizations and other organizations for information on areas of training to be used in modules for the sessions in Washington. Specific requests were made for self-determination materials developed with the input of self-advocates. We received responses from 13 different groups.

SABE is in process of developing resource listings for the project, which will include materials, on-line resources, and speakers for training events.

SABE Public Relations committee has developed a plan for coordination with other partners. This includes linking our website to Advocate Central a discussion board located at www.self-determination.org. Self-advocates and parents can now talk about self-determination and self-advocacy.

We have also reviewed all applications from self-advocates across the nation and have made our recommendation on the selections of the participants.