Newsletter Feb 2024

February 2024

January 2024 People First Advisory Board Meeting Recap

The People First Advisory Board met on January 16th, 2024 and made some important decisions for the upcoming People’s First Conference. They selected the keynote speaker and the food options for the event. They also learned how to access and communicate with their legislators through the WV Legislature website. This way the next day at Fair Shake Networks Disability Advocacy Days the self-advocates could know which legislators to talk to regarding any issues the advocates might have.

The conference theme for 2024 is “Live It, Learn It, Love It” and the keynote speaker is Erin Thompson, a former speaker at a People First Youth Conference. You can read more about Erin in the article below. The menu for the conference is also available below. The board also voted for the theme and speaker for next year’s conference. The theme will be “We’re All in This Together” and the speaker will be Russell Lehmann. Well done, advocates, for planning ahead!

Click Here for the 2024 Conference Menu

2024 People First Conference Keynote Speaker

This years People First keynote speaker is Erin Thompson! Erin and her colleagues’ work helped to inspire a national movement to get rid of the “R” word. Erin has continued her efforts as an accomplished and passionate advocate for those with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Erin joined MAG Aerospace in February 2022 as an Administrative Assistant in their headquarters office in Fairfax, Virginia and serves as their Best Buddies Ambassador. 

2024 T-Shirt Design Contest

For the first time we are holding a t-shirt design contest for the 2024 conference t-shirt. The guidelines are as follows

o   You must be a self-advocate in WV to enter

o   Has to have the theme words in the design

o   Live It! Learn It! Love It!

o   The design can be hand drawn or done on a computer but it must be your original artwork

o   Maximum of 3 colors can be used in the design. Including black or white

o   You are designing the Front of the shirt, the back with be the People First Logo

o   The design must fit into 12 inches by 12 inches square

o   The design must be simple, overly detailed designs will be lost on the shirt

T he deadline to submit your design is April 5th,2024. You have three options to send us your design:

– Email it to Alexis Ullmann at alexis.ullmann@thearcmov.org and Morgan Spicer at morgan.spicer@thearcmov.org.

– Send a picture through messenger to our People First of West Virginia Facebook page.

– Fax it to 304-865-2072.

If you have any questions please contact Alexis Ullmann at alexis.ullmann@theearcmov.org

 Mid-Year Training 2024

This is a reminder the Mid-Year Training will take place on May 15th, 2024 from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm. We are still looking for a suitable venue that is free or low-cost for hosting the training. If you have any suggestions, please let us know as soon as possible. We also need a training topic for May. We appreciate the submissions we have received so far, but we welcome more ideas. You can reach out to Alexis Ullmann with your suggestions at alexis.ullmann@thearcmov.org or 304-422-3151 ext 114.

At the Mid-Year Training, we will also vote on the classes and t-shirt design and color for this year. We ask each People First Group to send us their top 3 favorite classes from previous years’ conferences by April 5th, 2023. We will use these submissions to create a master list for voting.