Daily Inspiration: Meet Derona King
Citizen Advocacy’s Derona King speaking at a local Atlanta event
Today we’d like to introduce you to Derona King.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I learned about Citizen Advocacy in early 1993 after taking a job with the state of Georgia. I was working as the administrative assistant for a government-funded project that was tasked to monitor Supported Employment in Georgia. I was completely naïve in many ways. I had no idea what I was doing as an administrative assistant, nor did I have a clue what Supported Employment was. What I soon learned in that job is that people with physical and intellectual disabilities are relegated to such low social status in the United States that it was widely accepted for employers to pay people with disabilities a subminimum wage.
The idea that anybody in America could be said to have employment and be paid, sometimes, cents on a dollar was incredulous to me. That started my quests to understand a harmful system of practice that I never realized existed. Questioning lead me to the right someone who took the time to explain to me how, historically, people with disabilities have been pushed down and to the edge of society, often with the full acceptance and participation of the paid human service system. That same person asked me if I had ever heard of Citizen Advocacy, a local nonprofit that provides protection and advocacy to people with developmental disabilities by matching them with ordinary citizens to create ongoing personal relationships. I had not, but I was curious enough to find out. My curiosity lead to a job. That was 28 years ago. I am now the Executive Director of Citizen Advocacy of Atlanta & DeKalb, Inc.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It is my experience that pursuing anything worthwhile usually has its own challenges or obstacles. And the pursuit of a more just and welcoming community for people experiencing disability discrimination is a worthwhile endeavor. The biggest obstacles or challenges in my work center around the low expectations and negative assumptions many people hold onto about people with disability labels and the often subtle but dangerous ways we perpetuate those negative assumptions.
Citizen Advocacy was established in Georgia more than 40 years ago because it’s citizens with disabilities were daily confronted with external obstacles and challenges. That is still, more often than not, the way things work. My job is to seek out people with developmental disabilities who are most vulnerable to abuse, neglect, or social exclusion. That has meant seeing people being harmed or ignored by the systems that are supposed to protect them and seeing people abused or taken advantaged of by family members, and just knowing that people with disabilities continue to face rejection by the wider community. So, no, it hasn’t been a smooth road.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
My job as the Director/Coordinator of Citizen Advocacy of Atlanta & DeKalb is unique. My primary role is that of a matchmaker. I intentionally seek out people at risk of disability discrimination who have likely never had anyone come alongside them and really begin to know them for who they are. Once I get to know the person with the disability and their story I look for the one person in our community who may share a common interests, character quality, gift or skillset with them and invite that person to hear the story of the person with the disability.
My goal is to find one ordinary community member who could identify enough with the other person’s story that they would be eager to meet them and eventually make a commitment to be intentionally involved in that person’s life in a voluntary and ongoing way (a citizen advocate.) I am proud that many ordinary people get to be citizen advocates because I invite them to be. I am proud of the protection that many people have received as a result of having a citizen advocate. I am proud that some of these relationships are as life-changing for the citizen advocate as they are for the person with the disability. I am proud that some of these relationships have lasted for decades. I am proud to have a job that I can do in good conscience that also enables me to contribute to the Beloved Community.
What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
I love that Atlanta really is the city within a forest. There is green space everywhere and it is one of the most beautiful cities in the spring when everything is in bloom. Within minutes you can be chillin’ in an urban vibe, shooting the Hooch, hiking a trail or dining at one of Atlanta’s many five-star restaurants. I really like that Atlanta is home to some of the nation’s most diverse communities. We have great universities, a strong business community and diverse faith communities.
As much as we have to be proud of, the ghosts of the old south continue to surface from time to time. There is way too much poverty, hunger and homelessness. And if it isn’t too cliché to say so, Atlanta TRAFFIC is out of control.
