{"id":126955,"date":"2025-11-06T13:16:49","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T19:16:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/?p=126955"},"modified":"2025-11-11T13:00:49","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T19:00:49","slug":"soar-conference-aids-self-advocates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/11\/06\/soar-conference-aids-self-advocates\/","title":{"rendered":"SOAR conference aids self-advocates"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"panel body-content\"><div class=\"panel__container\">\n<p>More than 250 self-advocates with disabilities attended the SOAR conference hosted, in part, by the Munroe-Meyer Institute last month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The three-day conference offered presentations led by individuals with disabilities. Topics focused on how to advocate for yourself on personal and systems levels, said Mark Shriver, PhD, director of MMI\u2019s University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Other sessions covered communicating with others, planning ahead and navigating different systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This year\u2019s conference, held in early October, was hosted in conjunction with People First of Nebraska. It drew attendees from seven states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, Dr. Shriver said. The breakout sessions and keynote speakers resonated with attendees. One of the biggest highlights was the opportunity to connect with other individuals with disabilities both at the conference sessions and the conference entertainment events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI think it\u2019s important, particularly now as there\u2019s a lot of change at federal and state levels related to systems of care for individuals with disabilities,\u201d Dr. Shriver said.&nbsp; \u201cIt helps them learn how they can advocate for themselves to ensure that the systems and supports in place are going to be most beneficial for them.\u201d<\/p>\n<a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"\/secure-location.php\" style=\"display: none;\" title=\"Iu iG HJ\"><\/a><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The three-day conference offered presentations led by individuals with disabilities. Topics focused on how to advocate for yourself on personal and systems levels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":140,"featured_media":127488,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"68305,48223,41906,118174,72642,41407","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-126955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","author_override-kelsey-kirk-unmc-strategic-communications"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>SOAR conference aids self-advocates<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The three-day conference offered presentations led by individuals with disabilities. Topics focused on how to advocate for yourself on personal and systems levels.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/11\/06\/soar-conference-aids-self-advocates\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"SOAR conference aids self-advocates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The three-day conference offered presentations led by individuals with disabilities. Topics focused on how to advocate for yourself on personal and systems levels.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/11\/06\/soar-conference-aids-self-advocates\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Newsroom\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/unmcedu\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-11-06T19:16:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-11-11T19:00:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/soar-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1828\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kelsey Kirk\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@unmc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@unmc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kelsey Kirk\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/11\/06\/soar-conference-aids-self-advocates\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/11\/06\/soar-conference-aids-self-advocates\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Kelsey Kirk\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/4e3146fb1da6082c4559ef1440548ce5\"},\"headline\":\"SOAR conference aids self-advocates\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-11-06T19:16:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-11-11T19:00:49+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/11\/06\/soar-conference-aids-self-advocates\/\"},\"wordCount\":196,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/11\/06\/soar-conference-aids-self-advocates\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/soar-scaled.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/11\/06\/soar-conference-aids-self-advocates\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/11\/06\/soar-conference-aids-self-advocates\/\",\"name\":\"SOAR conference aids self-advocates\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/11\/06\/soar-conference-aids-self-advocates\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/11\/06\/soar-conference-aids-self-advocates\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/soar-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-11-06T19:16:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-11-11T19:00:49+00:00\",\"description\":\"The three-day conference offered presentations led by individuals with disabilities. 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