STUDENT RESOURCE
CENTRE
Self Advocacy Workshop
WHAT IS SELF ADVOCACY?
An informed decision made by students to achieve a
specific desired goal or outcome
Can you be more specific?
STUDENT RESPONSIBILITIES
• Self-knowledge
• It is important to have a clear understanding of your specific support needs
and be able to clearly express your needs to support staff, faculty, and
administration.
• Get to know the support resources on campus so that you know where to go
when you experience challenges.
• Identify areas of potential support needs and plan to meet with the appropriate
support providers ahead of your actual support challenges
• Seek support ahead of deadlines
WHY?
• University support services are different from high school support
services
• There will be different expectations & challenges
• For example, academic; culture; mental health
• Know that success in the university landscape requires proactive
support seeking habits
IMPORTANT SUPPORT SEEKING
HABITS
• Pre & post meeting planning (what meeting?)
• Interpersonal communication skills
PLANNING & ORGANIZATION
PRE-MEETING
• Organize your support needs into short-term and long-term support
categories
PRE-MEETING:
IMPORTANT POINTS TO CONSIDER
• What do you want the outcome to be? What are you trying to accomplish? Shortterm? (Day to day) Long-term?
• Practice describing your needs with someone you feel comfortable with ahead of
your scheduled meeting
• Write down your questions
• Prepare to negotiate
• Write down few support options to suggest to the person you are going to meet with.
Short-term? Long-term? This is a good way to ensure you are able to meet your
meeting objective
PRE-MEETING
• Practice asking for support with someone you are comfortable with
POST-MEETING
• Plan to send an email to thank the person for meeting with you
• Plan to suggest a date for a follow-up meeting
• Plan to evaluate your performance and set up an objective for the next
meeting
INTERPERSONAL
COMMUNICATION SKILLS
• Non-verbal communication skills
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Make eye contact
Sit up
Maintain an assertive, and clear tone
Listen attentively
Take notes
VERBAL INTERPERSONAL
COMMUNICATION SKILLS
• Repeat what the person says to you to make sure you got the main point
• Ask the person to repeat their statement if you don’t understand what they are trying
to say
• Highlight your reason for the meeting in clear, concise language
SUMMARY
• Pre & Post Meeting Suggestions
• Write down all your support needs before arriving on campus
• Write down all your support related questions
• Write down few support options to suggest to the person you are going to meet
with
• Practice asking for support with someone you are comfortable with
• Divide your support needs into short-term and long-term goals
• Meet with someone to identify appropriate support resources
• Ask for help well in advance before things start to go wrong
• Interpersonal communication skills
Make eye contact with people when talking to them
Sit up
Maintain, an assertive, and clear tone
Listen attentively
Take good notes
Highlight the main points of a meeting at the end to ensure that you got the
intended message
• Reiterate your objective at the end of the meeting in clear, concise language
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SELF-ADVOCACY DIAGRAM