Inside This Issue. Visit our website to join our mailing list and see our calendar of events.

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1 Inside This Issue What Self-Advocacy Means To Us... 2 Embracing The Future of Self-Advocacy In New Hampshire... 4 Employment and New Hampshire Alliance For Full Participation... 4 Young Adult Self-Advocacy... 5 Institutions: Close Them! ~ Updates: New Film Coming!... 5 Remembering Diane Carignan... 6 Mission Statement We believe that people with disabilities should be treated as equals. We should be given the right to make the same decisions, and to have the same choices and responsibilities as anyone else. We should be allowed to make new friends and renew old friendships and be as independent as we are able. We should be able to live where we want to live and work where we want to work. We should also be included in society and not be singled out as being different. We will work to accomplish these ends in New Hampshire. Visit our website to join our mailing list and see our calendar of events. People First of New Hampshire 4 Park Street, Suite 304B, Concord, NH info@peoplefirstofnh.org

2 WHAT SELF-ADVOCACY MEANS TO US People First of New Hampshire members express what self-advocacy means. Chrystal Johnson, President: Being a self-advocate made me grow up more as a woman. When we had the relationship conference I learned how to treat my marriage right. Selfadvocacy has made me be a better leader and a good role model for whoever comes in the future to look up to me. Eliza Gifford, Vice-President: Making friends and helping to get to know each better. I m learning how to type. John Fenley, Secretary: Self-advocacy is important to me because it has empowered me to speak-up more for myself and others and it has given me the courage to stand-up to people who are too high-up on the totem pole. I don t think I would have had the courage to go to the state house rally about the budget cuts without self-advocacy. It gives you an amazing opportunity to meet new people and form new alliances throughout the state. Joanne Salvas: You can meet different people from different places and get to know them. Self-advocacy means having friends. I decided I wanted my voice heard so that people from the outside can know what I went through (at Laconia State School). Laura Main: It means sticking up for myself. I have been an officer at one time or another. It gives me a chance to learn new things. My involvement has helped me get what I believe is right. I am a good advocate to others. Bill Thompson: I like coming to the meetings. I learn about the budget and how to speak for ourselves. We talk about selfadvocacy conferences. 2

3 Michael Mills: People First of NH is a place to discuss personal issues, statewide and national issues and try to resolve them to our best of our ability. We work as a group and as a team and community. Allen Emerson: People First of NH helps other people gets our point together. I am 50 now and started helping Lakes Region Self-Advocacy Group when I was in my earlier twenties. Sometimes I ve been President and Vice-President. Just being a part of the group is important. Being a part of the group means that I am needed. Denis Greenwood: I have liked that we have been working on the closing institutions goal. I don t like to see my cousin lived in an institution. I m a different kind of person by being involved in People First of NH. I m more patient. I speak up for myself. Self-advocacy has taught me how to move out of your mother s house. Michael Sauve: Self-advocacy means I can learn how to plan and get help speaking up for myself. I can help others who cannot speak up. I have learned to educate others how I want to be treated. I have gained more personal responsibility. I advocates for others now. Roberta Gallant: People First of NH offers citizens with disabilities the opportunity to speak-up and advocate for themselves and to represent the entire state of NH. The organization also gives them great pride to do what they want to meet their advocacy issues and to stand-up for themselves in what they believe. It also opens up the doors to people to testify at the state capitol and attend huge rallies like the budget cuts. We meet more people by attending the national self-advocacy conferences and learn so many other experiences. Linda Perkins: Self-advocacy is great because I can listen to other self-advocates. I learn from others. I like meetings. I am much happier. I can do things on my own. 3

4 EMBRACING THE FUTURE OF SELF-ADVOCACY IN NEW HAMPSHIRE As you may know, People First of New Hampshire has been funded almost entirely by state funds which have been maintained at $88,000 for the last few years. During these difficult times in trying to make all ends meet in our state budget, People First of New Hampshire learned that it will not be funded at the same level. We know that we have great followers and supporters of People First of New Hampshire - across the state, nation and internationally. Now is the time to reach out to our friends, supporters and potential new funders to ask for your help. It is necessary to put all of our energy into thinking positively about the way in which we can find sustaining funds and in-kind resources to uphold the mission and goals of People First of New Hampshire. It is important to recognize that People First of New Hampshire is a part of the larger civil rights and self-advocacy movement. In 2012, the organization will be celebrating twenty years as a non-profit. Please consider a contribution to our future. You may use the enclosed envelope to send your tax-deductible donations, or, you may visit our website and donate online. Please visit our website for more details at: and for a listing of our generous contributors from New Hampshire and across the nation. EMPLOYMENT AND NEW HAMPSHIRE ALLIANCE FOR FULL PARTICIPATION Please join our fully-inclusive employment team to increase employment opportunities for people who experience disabilities. Members on our team include self-advocates, employment providers, business leaders and parents. We meet monthly to network, share resources and offer trainings. Our dedicated webpage dedicated for the NH Alliance For Full Participation is: Join us on Facebook at: For-Full-Participation/

5 YOUNG ADULT SELF-ADVOCACY Jill Libby enjoys her involvement in self-advocacy by attending meetings with young people and helping to organize events and trainings. Wouldn t you like to participate, too? Young-adults have been meeting over the last several months to plan events and training opportunities. If you are between the ages of 16 and 30ish, please learn more about young-adult self-advocacy by visiting our website at: INSTITUTIONS: CLOSE THEM! ~ UPDATES: NEW FILM COMING! New Film: In the spring, People First of New Hampshire will be launching a new film featuring self-advocates who lived at Laconia State School and sending the message that institutions are wrong community living is right. Our website will provide updates on the film and showings. Pictured above are Joanne Salvas, Roberta Gallant and Linda Perkins; three of the five featured in the film. It is expected to have our first showing of the film in Concord, NH. It will be distributed nationally. Last summer, members of People First of New Hampshire met with representatives from Massachusetts Advocates Standing Strong (MASS) to discuss the plans underway to close institutions in MA. The discussion included educating those still living in the institutions. The two groups will continue their work together to close institutions. Pictured left to right: John Anton and Bridget Crowley of MASS; Roberta Gallant, Chrystal Johnson, Janet Hunt, and John Fenley of People First of NH (missing from picture: Anne Fracht, Fran Hogan and Ed Bielecki of MASS). Visit our Facebook Page where we have over 2260 friends from across the world! 5

6 REMEMBERING DIANE CARIGNAN Diane L. Carignan, 48, died Thursday, Dec. 22, She was born in Laconia, the daughter of Arthur Carignan and Donna Perry. Diane grew up in Franklin and lived in Concord, Manchester and Bristol. Diane was proudly working toward obtaining her GED. She had a strong voice as a self-advocate in New Hampshire and served on several boards and committees to stand for the rights of people who experience disabilities. Diane was a co-founder of People First of New Hampshire, worked with the Lakes Region Self Advocacy Group, NH Leadership and in recent years held several positions on the board of directors of the Disability Rights Center of New Hampshire. Diane loved her job for the Newfound Area School District at Project Promise. She enjoyed shopping and yard sales with her mother and fishing and boating with her stepfather. Going to Funspot, camping, NASCAR and reading were all passions of Diane's. She especially had been looking forward to a trip to California this spring to visit her brother and swim with the dolphins. Diane leaves behind many family and friends who will dearly miss her frequent phone calls. She is survived by her mother and step-father Donna and Robert Nesteruk of Bristol; father and step-mother Arthur and Carol Carignan of Tilton; sister Brenda McIntire of Plymouth; brother Chris Carignan of San Diego, Calif.; maternal grandparents Alonzo and Carol (Adams) Perry of Boscawen; stepsisters Ann Learned and Susan Colby, both of Bristol; Kelly Garcia of Los Angeles; step-brother John Nesteruk of Hill; longtime friend Mark Dickenson of Concord; aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews. In lieu of flowers, the family would like donations to be made in her memory to People First of NH, 4 Park St. Suite 304B, Concord, NH or at As mentioned, Diane was a co-founder of People First and remained an active member of the board of directors holding several officer roles throughout the years. Visit our webpage dedicated to Diane and share a memory of your own at 6