THE SUSTAINABLE ADVOCATE

Practical Tools for Navigating the Emotional Side of Caring and Advocating for Your Loved One

A live, interactive workshop for parents, caregivers, guardians, and family advocates.

I don’t need to teach you how to be an advocate (or how to be a better one.)

Chances are, you’ve learned how to advocate because you’ve had to.

You’ve learned your loved one’s needs. You’ve learned systems, services, providers, paperwork, meetings, and decisions. You’ve learned when to ask questions, when to speak up, when to push, and sometimes when to fight for what the person you love needs.

Some of that may have come from training, resources, or other families.

A lot of it probably came from lived experience, trial and error, and simply doing what needed to be done.

But there’s another part of caring and advocating that doesn’t get talked about nearly as much:

What does the experience of being an advocate bring up in you?

The frustration when something isn’t working. The uncertainty when you don’t know what to do next. The disappointment when a meeting or conversation doesn’t go the way you hoped. 

The second-guessing after a decision. The anger when your loved one isn’t getting what they need. 

That voice afterward that says,

"I should’ve handled that better. I should know this by now. I should’ve said something. Why am I letting this bother me? Am I doing enough? What if I’m getting this wrong?"

Maybe some of those are familiar to you. Maybe your experience looks completely different.

Either way, this workshop isn’t here to tell you how you should feel. It’s here to make some room for you...the person doing the caring and advocating.

This isn’t a workshop about advocacy. 

It’s about the experience of being an advocate.

The Sustainable Advocate is a practical, interactive workshop focused on something that can easily get lost when so much of your attention is naturally focused on your loved one:

You.

So instead of your loved one, the person at the center of this workshop is you.

• What are you experiencing?
• What are you feeling?
• What are you telling yourself about what’s happening?
• What do you actually need?
• What might help you move through a difficult moment without making it even harder on yourself?

If you're reading this and feeling a little discomfort, then that's perfect! We’ll explore immediately applicable tools for navigating the thoughts, emotions, reactions, expectations, and hard moments that can come with caring and advocating for someone you love.

Not so you can become better at taking on more, staying calm all the time, or adding one more thing you “should” be doing to already-long to-do list.

The goal is to give you more ways to work with whatever comes up along the way and help make your day-to-day just a little bit easier.

Purchase your ticket here.

What We’ll Explore Together

During this live workshop, you’ll learn practical tools to help you:

• Recognize what you’re experiencing without immediately judging yourself for it
• Navigate frustration, anger, worry, disappointment, uncertainty, overwhelm, and other difficult emotions
• Get grounded when something has you activated
• Create more space between what happens and how you respond
• Notice the expectations and “shoulds” that can make difficult moments even harder
• Understand what you may actually be more helpful in the moment
• Recognize when you need more information, support, space, perspective, a conversation, or action
• Give yourself more grace when you don’t know the answer or didn’t handle something perfectly
• Identify your next step without feeling like you have to figure everything out at once

Because sometimes there’s the hard thing, and then there’s what we add on top of it.

Hard Is Hard Enough

Maybe the meeting didn’t go the way you hoped. You didn't get the answer you wanted. There's more paperwork than you expected (and it's confusing).

There's lots of uncertainty. Your last "support" conversation went sideways. There's a situation you can’t control.

Or you just don't know what to do next.

Some things about caring and advocating for your loved one are simply hard.

And then, sometimes, people add another layer like shame, the need to be "perfect," or their own high expectations.

So you say things like, "I should’ve known. I should’ve done more. I shouldn’t be this upset. Why didn’t I say something? I should be handling this better."

We may not always be able to change the first hard.

But we can learn how not to make it harder by being so hard on ourselves.

That’s part of what we’ll practice together.

Who This Is For

The Sustainable Advocate is designed for parents, caregivers, guardians, and family advocates caring for and supporting a loved one with a disability or additional support needs.

You don’t need to be burned out. You don’t need to be in crisis. You don’t need to feel overwhelmed. And you certainly don’t need someone telling you that you should be doing more.

Maybe you’re relatively new to this. Maybe you’ve been doing it for decades and much of it is simply part of your life.

You bring your lived experience.

I’ll bring some practical tools, questions, and a space to explore the part of caring and advocating that doesn’t always get enough attention: Your experience of it.

You Matter, Too.

When you care for and advocate for someone you love, so much of your attention naturally goes outward toward them. So you often find yourself asking questions like:

• What do they need?
• Are they getting the right support?
• What do I need to figure out?
• Who do I need to talk to?
• What happens next?

For a little while, we’re going to make room for some additional questions that are centered around YOU as the caregiver, parent, or advocate:

• What are you experiencing?
• What do you need?
• What would provide support to you right now?
• What’s yours to do and what isn’t?
• What’s your next step?

Not instead of caring for your loved one, but alongside it.

Yes, your loved one matters...and you matter, too.

JOIN US LIVE

The Sustainable Advocate

Practical Tools for Navigating the Emotional Side of Caring and Advocating for Your Loved One

Date: Wednesday, October 14th
Time: 6:00pm-7:30pm Pacific Time
Where: Live on Zoom
Length: 90 minutes
Investment: $29

Purchase your ticket here.

About Donnie Hill

Donnie Hill is the Founder & CEO of Life Maximizer, a leadership and communication coach, facilitator, author, and community educator with more than 15 years of experience helping people navigate difficult conversations, challenging moments, and change.

Donnie has worked within California’s developmental services community, organizing, producing, and facilitating both in-person and virtual events, workshops, and resource fairs centered around the Self-Determination Program.

His work has brought him alongside families, service providers, community organizations, and other stakeholders to provide education, resources, and opportunities for people to learn and navigate systems together.

At the heart of Donnie’s work is self-leadership—helping people understand what’s happening inside them and find a way forward when things are frustrating, uncertain, emotionally charged, or when their patience is simply running out.

As a Certified Cancer Coach and caregiver himself, Donnie also brings professional and lived experience supporting people through situations where there isn’t always an easy answer or something you can immediately fix.

Through The Sustainable Advocate workshop, he brings these experiences together to create practical, human-centered tools for the people doing the caring and advocating because supporting your loved one matters, and so do you.