Parish Advocacy for Persons with Disabilities

Parish Advocacy for Persons with Disabilities

The purpose of this toolkit is to assist the parish efforts in “Welcoming and Including” parishioners with disabilities into the life of the Church.  The toolkit provides a sample job description for a Parish Advocate for Persons with Disabilities, a description of both advocacy and self advocacy as well as tips for identifying parishioners with disabilities and ideas for planning a parish visitation process for persons with disabilities.

Approach to Implementation:

The office of persons with disabilities will work with various parish staff to identify a person or persons who would volunteer as a Parish Advocate for persons with disabilities.

Roles and Responsibilities:

The pastor and members of the parish staff will be expected to support the parish advocate in indentifying and meeting the social and spiritual needs of persons with disabilities.  Communication to all members of the parish can be shared through website, pulpit and Church Bulletin announcements.

Training:

Once parishioners with disabilities are identified, their stories can be shared and the Church Community will implement plans to “welcome and include” these marginalized and gifted persons into the life of the Church.

Expected Resources:

The office of Persons with Disabilities will provide support and training for the parish advocate.

Please download these tools for this toolkit:

Sample Job Description for Parish Advocate
Advocacy: What is it?
Self-Advocacy: What is it?
Planning a Parish Visitation Process
Tips for Identifying Parishioners and Families with Disabilities
Interview Form

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