5:30 – 6:30 p.m.  Appetizers and Music on the Patio

6:30-7:30 p.m. The Biggest and Best Covered Dish Supper in Savannah

7:30 – 8:30 p.m. Home Grown Good News: Stories from Citizen Advocates

Join us on a Journey to the Beloved Community… An Exhibition and Related Events After 34 years of coffee and conversation and working to quietly change “who knows who” in Savannah, we are taking our story to the big stage at the Jepson Center for the Arts at 207 West York Street and at the Indigo Sky Gallery at 915 Waters Avenue.  Hundreds of people have been directly involved in citizen advocacy relationships over the past three decades here in Savannah. These people can be thought of as “social artists.” People have used their own social networks and their own social, political and civic skills to create a more welcoming community. We hope you will mark your calendars for this upcoming series of events and join with us as we share the story of citizen advocacy in some exciting new ways. For more information, call us as 912-236-5798.

Story Quilts by artist and activist Beth Mount July 19- October 14, Jepson Center for the Arts, Varnedoe Gallery, Opening Reception July 19, 6 p.m. Beth Mount and Tom Kohler have been working toward a common cause for over 35 years, Tom in Savannah and Beth in Athens and New York. This common cause is helping people who are diminished because of prejudice toward disability find ways to become important to other people and important in their communities. Beth’s work with people all over the world has lead to the creation of Story Quilts. Each quilt brings the voice of a group of people who have gone unheard to life visually. The work is bright, bold, inspiring and optimistic!

Seeing Savannah: Lyn Bonham’s View of Citizen Advocacy, July 19- December 16, Trustees Gallery, Jepson Center for the Arts, Opening Reception July 19, 6 p.m. Photographer Lyn Bonham has documented several advocate and protégé relationships established through Chatham-Savannah Citizen Advocacy. The photos in this exhibit, which span the years 2000-2010, showcase Bonham’s talent in revealing the essence of her subjects’ relationships.  These black and white portraits allow the viewer to consider what it means to be a member of our community – what it means to be part of our town in our time.

I Am the Beloved Community: Story Quilts of Our Savannah, August 10 – December 16, Jepson Center for the Arts Second Floor Gallery, Opening Reception July 19, 6 pm Experience a collection of neighborhood story quilts made by the children of the West Broad Street YMCA’s Loop it Up Savannah Program, Boys and Girls Club of the Coastal Empire and the seniors of the City of Savannah Hudson Hill Golden Age Center. Get a window into the making of the quilts with Digital Displays by international students from the Savannah College of Art and Design English as a Second Language Department.

 Waddie Welcome and the Beloved Community Presentation and Story Quilt Gallery Talk, Thursday, September 27, Jepson Center for the Arts, Nieses Auditorium, 6:00 p.m. Tom Kohler and Susan Earl, co-authors of the award-winning book Waddie Welcome and the Beloved Community will do some old fashioned storytelling. These images and words have traveled the world and now they come to the Jepson Auditorium. You will see people and places you know. Beth Mount will share her newest Story Quilt based on the story of Waddie Welcome and the Beloved Community. This is a Savannah story!

Eye to Eye: The Making of We, September 28-October 24, Indigo Sky Gallery, 915 Waters Avenue, Opening reception Friday September 28, 7:00 p.m. Jerome Meadows is a New Yorker by birth and a Savannahian by choice. He has been commissioned as a public art sculptor throughout the United States. Jerome is coordinating the creation of 5 new pieces of work in Savannah. This work will base on the experiences of local photographers, videographers, painters, printmakers and other artists as they come into relationship with several advocate and protégés.  This original work will be one more way of helping people find their voice to tell their stories.

John shared a story about a man he knew named Tom Allen. Mr. Allen lived in the New York State developmental disability institutional system from 1915 to 1985. None of us can ever imagine what that life was like for Mr. Allen.

Mr. Allen wrote an autobiography, short in length and long in wisdom. He did this over a period of years, finding the occasional staff person he could trust to listen closely to him and capture what he had to say.

I am sharing some of John O’Brien’s reflection on Tom Allen’s autobiography. Think of the word “institution” in two ways. First, as the place Tom Allen was forced to live his life. Second, as a place holder for any other word that comes to your mind.

• The institution wants to isolate you… (reach out and make friends, you have to make the effort…)
• The institution wants to cut you off from family… (remember people who have loved you even if they let you down…)
• The institution wants to control even the smallest details of daily life… (you can find spaces to be free if you learn about how the institution controls you, know your captors…)
• The institution wants to silence you… (find safe ways to use your voice, don’t give up when people don’t listen…)
• The institution makes decisions for you… (be a decision maker…)
• The institution makes you dependent… (learn to do whatever you can for yourself even if it’s hard and takes a long time…)
• The institution has low expectations of you… (make a difference to other people who have disabilities…)
• The institution wants to get inside your head and the heads of all the people that care about you… (don’t think like the institution. It wins when you give up and believe that you are no more than the institution…)
• The institution wants to own you and your past. Your story belongs to them and they edit it their way… (tell and retell your life story in your own voice…)
• The institution wants to own your future… (keep your dream alive and guard it…)

“I wanted to be part of the world and
leave the institution.” — Tom Allen

Remember, use the word “institution” as a place holder. Insert other words, feelings, ideas that come to your mind.

You can learn more about John O’Brien and read some of his work by visiting http://www.inclusion.com/jobrien.html or http://thechp.syr.edu/randr.htm

We get to know the person with the developmental disability and learn about their hopes, dreams and interests.

We reach out to people we know who have connections, talents and skills that match up with who the person is and what their hopes are.

We give both people the opportunity to learn about one another and to decide if they would like to deepen that learning.

If the two people decide they would like to get to know one another and try to create change, we help them get started and we stay in touch to listen, share ideas and to offer encouragement.

We encourage citizen advocates to ask their friends and associates to help them in their advocacy efforts.

We are always available to the citizen advocate at their request. We do not step in for them, but we try and be there for them whenever they call.

We offer invitations to ongoing learning and celebration from time to time. These are invitations not obligations.

Take a look at this short introductory video to citizen advocacy by Christine Batta. Let us know what you think!

We are sure looking forward to playwright Nikki Booker’s dramatization of Tom Kohler and Susan Earl’s story of Waddie Welcome and the Beloved Community coming soon to the stage in Cincinnati. Take a look at this short video describing the project. After the debut, a Savannah staging perhaps?

People often ask, “Who becomes a citizen advocate? What do they do?” 

Here are seven short stories, gleaned from recent conversations.

Sandy Hopkins, an advocate for less than one year, has been helping his protégé’s family negotiate with the public school system with the hope that their son can soon attend school in his Wilmington Island neighborhood rather than be bussed across town to a completely segregated special education facility.

George Barrow, an advocate for more than two years, is looking for ways to help his protégé become more involved in our community by doing some volunteering, with the hope of this leading to some paying work.

BJ Franklin, an advocate for less than one year, sponsored his protégé Bill to become a member of the local Marine Corps League. Bill’s father, now deceased, was active and proud military. Bill grew up with this ethos as well. This is a nice way for Bill, who is new to Savannah and living with his sister, to begin to make friends here in Savannah.

Katie Hoover, an advocate for more than three years, spent part of her day recently by taking her young protege to the dentist and then out for a little reward for being good.

Phil Peterman, an advocate for four years, has provided his protégé with a laptop and software to compose music. A hobby and passion that could grow into more.

Angie Johnson, an advocate for more than 16 years, has been helping her protégé by finding a tutor for her  young son, something that his mom is not able to do.

Sherry Erskine, an advocate for more than 32 years, made sure that her protégé’s stay in a local nursing home after a hospitalization was temporary, rather than permanent or fatal. Sherry had the good help of her daughter Kate Rea and good friend Dawn Peil, during this time.

Who becomes a citizen advocate? 

In these stories, we have a stockbroker, an engineer, a web-marketing optimizer, a pension planner, an educator, a homemaker and a music maker. Two of these folks own their own businesses. Three work in local businesses. Two have retired, after balancing children and career for many years.

What do citizen advocates do?

Each offers himself or herself as someone who is open and available to be helpful as a fellow Savannahian.

Each looks for ways that they can make a good difference and they notice how being involved helps them see and feel things differently.

Many are using their personal connections in Savannah to create opportunities for their protégé. Savannah is a “who you know town.” This is how a lot of things get done.

Many are offering what looks like good old fashioned neighboring, practical help with getting something done.

Many are helping people get connected to the good things that Savannah has to offer all of us.

Many are helping people escape having to live a separate and segregated life. The code word is “special” and decoded it means segregated.

Professionally, Robin has been a freelance writer, publicist and project coordinator since 2003. She is acquainted with a broad array of people in Savannah from many different places and points of view, including community and church life, and her employment with the Ossabaw Island Foundation and the City of Savannah and her ownership of Hannah Banana Books in the early 2000s.

So our small staff of two is now three, and you will see an increase in citizen advocacy matches in the coming year.

What does it feel like to be an advocate? What would you want prospective advocates, or people very newly involved to hear?

“You really don’t know very much about what you are supposed to be doing. The stakes can be high, the issues you are negotiating and speaking to are new to you. I was simply scared of not doing the right thing.”

“I was not trusted. The man I met had been let down so many times, in so many ways and for almost his whole life. I felt fearful of failing by letting him down again. I also was looking too far down the road at first, trying to figure out more than I could, or even should. I had three basic feelings: fear, confusion and confidence. Confidence that I knew enough people, knew how to do things, and that the man I’d met and I had enough in common that something reasonable would work out.”

“In the beginning, I felt resented by my protégé’s family. Life and lifestyle for everyone had become predictable. Now I’m listening to my protégé who has a new dream, and both the dream and me are now being resented by his family.”

“At first my intellect was in charge. Then my emotions took over and I knew there was no going back. I also began to go step by step on the issues my protégé faced, which helped me feel less overwhelmed. I also began to realize and acknowledge the positive changes in my own life that were coming from this. The idea of receiving and giving became so real.”

“I remember getting scared. I became more serious when I learned about the realities of how strong some people’s biases and prejudices were and of how so many of my protégé’s life experiences matched the discussions about the wounds of devalued people I was having with the staff.”

“At first I focused on an issue, a task. As we waited for that to be resolved, we began to feel the relationship part grow. Seeing a movie together, the sharing of meals also became important.”

“My protégé and I really began to share emotions. His hurts really began to become my hurts, his victories mine. He began to experience my life in the same way. How I was doing was important to him.”

“Overtime, I’d say that I’ve gone from thinking the tasks at hand are the most important and now feel like it’s the person and the relationship that matter the most. It helps to listen to what the person is saying, often taking their direction and breaking it down into action steps.”

What does it feel like to have a citizen advocate?

“I was wondering how we could connect. Here’s this business man from a different world than I live in. I was wondering, ‘What is right to expect, to hope for? Am I asking too much? Where’s the limit? I don’t want to cross the line.’ I’ve had what I call traditional relationships that come through family and church. I’ve been struck by the clear feeling that my advocate is on my side, rather than someone who is always assessing my position and second-guessing my point of view. The intentionality, the clarity of the advocate’s willingness, makes it easier to ask for help. I hate asking for help.”

“Being asked to tell my whole life story to the coordinator was great. Piecing it together, editing it, and getting it right so that the prospective advocate would hear it clearly helped me feel more confident.”

“It’s commonalities, not disability, that this is built around. Everyone else is interested in my disabilities – not my life, not me. There was lots of communication back and forth before the first meeting and that helped me feel like I knew something about the advocate and he knew something about me before we met. At the first meeting I felt sincerity.”