Thankfully, organizations such as Autism Votes have made it easier than ever to advocate for legislation and policies helpful to families affected by autism.  If you think advocacy is time-consuming or scary,  check out what a mere 30 minutes can accomplish. It didn’t  take a long time for me to make a difference. You can do it, too! 

Thirty Minutes of Advocacy

 1 minute. Read an email from a local autism advocacy organization providing suggestions for how to support pending state legislation for autism insurance coverage.

1 minute.  Followed email link to answer an online questionnaire from local newspaper about why autism insurance coverage is so important.

5 minutes. Wrote my state senator an email thanking him for supporting autism insurance legislation. Used the template supplied by the above advocacy organization, but modified it to as a  thank you for existing sponsorship of the bill vs. requesting support for it. Clicked on our state government site to find my senator’s email, then copied and pasted my message into it.

5 minutes. Wrote my state representativean email requesting support of insurance legislation.  I took a few seconds to double check the Postal Service website to find my extended zip code so that I could confirm the state representative’s name for my area. Clicked back to state government site to find my state representative’s email address. Used same template as above to send email.

15 minutes. Continued internet search for local advocacy group on the issue of ‘crowd out’ factor by Medicaid on private insurance. Read abstracts of papers from Brookings, Urban Center and other brilliant organizations who are diligently working on this subject. Emailed bibliography of articles to local advocacy chapter head. Bookmarked articles to read in full later.

1 minute. Read an email from a mom who was distressed about changes to her son’s placement.

1 minute. Returned email to same mom requesting time to meet to discuss/mentor mom.

1 minute. Confirmed time with mom to meet for dinner that night to discuss her son’s situation and rights under IDEA.

Tags: Advocacy

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