Hello, my name is Phil Labbé and I am the president of PEOPLE WITH POWER. PEOPLE WITH POWER is a group of people at Community Living Espanola who joined together in order to have the power to speak in our own words, in our own way and to use our own ideas. We want to have a voice and stand up for what we believe in and not let anyone influence us. Our group is trying to make a difference in everybody’s lives. We want to be heard. All we are asking is to be able to ask a question and expect to get an answer in a way that we can understand it.

We held our very first meeting in 2011 and at that time we did not have a name. PEOPLE WITH POWER was chosen because it says THIS is who we are. My peers elected me as their president and I want to say that I am very happy to be chosen. I have some background and experience with these groups because years ago I belonged to a group called PEOPLE FIRST. This group was successful in having ramps put in stores where there was no access for people in wheelchairs. Pauline was elected Vice-President but since that time Liz has taken over, being voted in by her friends. Liz says she really likes this group and enjoys attending the meetings.

When we meet we talk about things we like, things we don’t like and things we plan to do. We talk about our rights and also our responsibilities. We always bring ideas to a vote to make sure everyone gets heard. One of our main goals is to fundraise. We want to get enough money so that one or two of our members can go to one of the Self Advocacy Conferences held every year. We think it is important to meet other people in similar groups so we can learn, share ideas and put some into motion. I always say you learn but you never forget and everything you do is a learning process.

We are proud to say that so far we have raised over $100.00 in our “Pennies for Power” penny jar fundraiser. We now plan to put one of our penny jars in The Craft House so that people from the community can support us also. In the future, we would also like to look into raffle tickets and grocery bagging fundraisers.

I am happy that I was asked to write this story because I want everybody to know who we are and what we are trying to do. Our group is important. It gives us power to speak and have people listen to us; people who can help us. It encourages members to say if there is something they are not happy with and know they can be heard so their problem will be resolved in a way that doesn’t hurt anyone.

I want to thank Louise for bringing self-advocacy to our attention and for always supporting us and to Andrea for everything she does for our group. We hope we can continue to get support from CLE, from our peers and from the community. Our next meeting is October 12th, 2012 at 9:30 a.m. in the cafeteria at CLE. We plan to discuss further fundraising ideas and I hope all members can attend.

Phil Labbé
President, PEOPLE WITH POWER