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A speaker from a national group that hopes to spread self advocacy among people with developmental disabilities is coming to Steamboat Springs.

On Wednesday, the vice president of People First, Joe Meadours, is speaking in Steamboat. His group is a national organization hoping to change the way people with developmental disabilities are viewed. The organization promotes self advocacy, being thoughtful when referring to people with developmental disabilities and establishing ways for those with disabilities to support one another.

Horizons Specialized Services staff member Amy Ibarra said a state grant spurred Meadours' visit and the People First movement in Northwest Colorado.

Meadours' talk will cover what a group such as People First can bring to the community, how the movement began, the importance of People First language and how to start a chapter in the community, Ibarra said.

Ibarra defined People First language as recognizing the person before the disability. For example, it is referring to someone as a person with a developmental disability rather than saying he or she is a Down syndrome or is mentally retarded.

Meadours will give his lecture in Steamboat from 1:30 to 4 p.m. Wednesday at the Steamboat Pilot & Today building. He will speak in Craig on Thursday at the Boys and Girls Club from 9:30 a.m. to noon.

Those with developmental disabilities, as well as those who work with or help support someone with a disability can find Meadours' presentation useful, Ibarra said.

Ibarra has been working to bring Meadours to town since November. She also has been helping form a self-advocacy group for people with developmental disabilities in Routt County.

That group has been meeting once a month. The meetings are held at members' homes, where they fix dinner. The group focuses on a different topic each month from responding to telemarketers to preparing for a job interview.

"It fosters a natural socialization that doesn't come so easily for our group," Ibarra said.

The group might not become a chapter of the People First organization, but the intent is to have group that "needs and supports each other," Ibarra said.

One of the concerns that many of the families of people with developmental disabilities have is that they do not have social outlets except for the ones set up by families and staff, Ibarra said.

"This is a great way to have social interactions, working out different conflicts with one another without having paid staff or parents do it for them," Ibarra said.

Ibarra hopes to expand the group and thinks it should go beyond Horizons clients to students in high school, those who choose not to use Horizons services or those on the waiting list.

The hope is to have the members of the group take on roles such as president and vice president, be the ones to call other members to remind them to come to the monthly meetings and decide where to hold the meetings.

"We want to empower them," Ibarra said.