Bulgarian society continues to be poorly, and in some cases, wrongly informed on the problems and the real potential of people with disabilities, particularly persons with intellectual ones.

To change this attitude, BAPID initiated a model of new relationship between people with disabilities and their communities to be presented and adopted because BAPID knows that persons with intellectual disabilities speak best about their own lives.

SELF-ADVOCACY is about participation and getting involved - in family, in society, in policy.

SELF-ADVOCACY is about being a person first, speaking up for you and for others. IT is about YOU learning to say “I”. SELF-ADVOCACY is about taking responsibilities and giving chances.

SELF-ADVOCACY is about listening and about being heard. IT is about taking your own decisions.

”I choose my clothes. I choose what I want to eat. I choose the people that will represent me. I choose where and with whom to live. I choose whether and for whom to vote. ”

IT is about confidence in you, about having other people believing in you as a person. IT is about getting on the way to independence.

During the final conference within “MY LIFE IS MY RESPONSIBILITY” Project, over 80 BAPID members - self-advocates and their assisting persons, supported by experienced international self-advocates and specialists from People First International - UK and L.F.B. - the Netherlands, gave directions and drew further steps to be taken for effective support of people with intellectual disabilities for their active participation in the process of person central planning.