Donna Jay: My Advocacy

My name is Donna Jay. 

I live in Salem Ma. There are many advocacy areas that are important to me.

Making sure everyone knows they have a voice and knows to how use it, is dear to my heart.

MASS Advocates Standing Strong, Human Rights and Diversity are also important to me.

Why I Advocate:

People need to know they have a voice and use it to decide where they want to live, work and choose the type of supports they need to live happily & and as independently as possible, in the community.

I speak to people, in high school, about turning 22 and share my experience with the students and their parents.

Dreams can come true, but people need to have a clear vision of the type of life they want and family and staff to help them to learn all of the skills needed to live a successful life.

I have been an active member of MASS Advocates Standing Strong, for many many years. I am the current Vice-Chair of the Notheast Region. I have also been a past member of the State Board of MASS.

At MASS; we reach out to people with disabilities and work together to change things for the better.

Some areas we focus include Voting and knowing where to vote, registering to vote and knowing what kind of help is available at the polls, who their local representatives are and learning information to make a choice about who to vote for.

Other topics are transportation, building relationships within the community and local City or Town officials to share our concerns.

We also meet monthly, at the State House to meet with our Legislators to educate them about Bills we wanted supported and other concerns. One area I’ve talked to them about is about is the Marriage Access for people with special abilities and another is making sure that the funds for Human Services are not cut.

Human Rights is another advocacy interest important to me. I have opportunities to speak people with and without disabilities about their rights. I am a member of the Supported Decision Making Task Force. We focus on helping other people with disabilities learn the have the ability to choose supporters to help them to make Important choices and then make their own decisions with help, instead of Guardianship.

I am a member of The DDS Diversity committee. We explore and support cultural differences.

When I am not busy advocating, you can find me walking around town or in nature, doing art -painting and drawing, doing puzzles, visiting friends, listening to music.

I also love going to NH and staying on a farm...I enjoy sunsets and occasionally a beautiful sunrise to start the day!