Advocacy
BECOME AN ADVOCATE
What you need to know about becoming an advocate for people with
Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (I/DD)
Find out which legislators represent your community
Not sure who your State Assembly Member or Senator is? Here is a link to the Websites that will help you determine the legislators that represent your community (also see below).
http://findyourrep.legislature.ca.gov/
http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/
Bills to watch
The Association of Regional Center Agencies (ARCA) has a legislation page on its web site that includes a “bill file” with a listing of all of the bills that they are following, and a status update.
Visit the ARCA web site Legislation Bill File page
How to search for bill information
If you would like to view a particular bill and learn about its status and other related information, the California Legislative Information web site is a great place to start.
Go to the California Legislative Information web site
Sample letter
Here is a sample that you can use to write a letter and guidelines that you can follow when sending a letter or e-mail or making a phone call to a legislator.
View the sample letter and guidelines
Legislative process
The Office of Senate Publications has an educational booklet that describes the legislative process.
View the pdf version of the booklet
We Build Opportunities
for Discovery, Choice and Self-Determination

