Advocate For Me

Kelly McAllister reopened We Rock the Spectrum - Northeast Philly in July 2021. It has been successfully open and serving the community for over a year now. Kelly has a degree in business and marketing that she earned from Penn State University. The vast majority of her experience has been in the hospitality and franchise industry for over 10 years. All of her work has revolved around the community and she believes that a strong focus on this is the key to successful relationship building. Her husband, Sean, was born and raised in the Parkwood neighborhood and most of their extended family still resides there as well. Kelly and Sean are extremely passionate about family and have three sons of their own: Logan (6), Jackson (3) and Cameron (1.5). Kelly frequently visited WRTS – Northeast Philly with her son Logan and felt that all children should have the opportunity to enjoy We Rock like he does. Having family members with special needs herself, Kelly has always wanted to find a way to pay it forward by owning a business with purpose.

Michele Abraham-Montgomery is a seasoned Family Peer Specialist providing self efficacy, empowerment, advocacy and resource information to families for over 20 years. She is the Co-Founder of Spectrum Success 911 alongside her son Khylil Robinson who is proudly working as a Community Autism Peer Specialist.  Spectrum Success 911 is a Nonprofit organization that supports families and individuals living with autism and mental health differences.

Alexandra Renée Poelstra is a speaker, consultant, and monsterprenuer known as THE MAVEN of ALL MAVEN, a small and mighty enterprise innovating bold and brilliant brands to shake up industries.
She’s been featured in various notable and award-winning publications and media, from Carlsbad’s 40 under 40 and the Colorado Springs Business Journal to Gusto. She also spoke for Webflow’s Virtual World Tour and ALL MAVEN was a Finalist for Innovator of the Year at Carlsbad’s CBAD Awards. 
Known as THE MAVEN of ALL MAVEN, she dedicates herself to crafting bold and brilliant brands geared to shake up the industry.

Salina Miller, a recipient of the National Nurses Coalition’s Unsung Heroes Award, is a visionary, a trailblazer, a philanthropist and the epitome of devotion. Her dedication to service is one of the qualities that draws people to her. Salina’s passion for service emerged with the birth of her son Elijiah, who has multiple diagnoses, including autism. Her love for family and fervent desire to positively impact others’ lives and advocate for individuals with special needs and their parents inspired her to create the service organization Mother 2 Mother in 2017 and dedicate her life to bringing education, empowerment and awareness to communities while providing support to special needs families. Salina is a loving mother to sons Elijiah, age 16, and Eric, age 20. She is happily married to her husband Robert and Salina enjoys reading, spending time with loved ones and traveling.

Excerpt from her website- https://mother2mother.info

Chanté Douglas is a single mother of an amazing child named Levi who also has autism. She is an accomplished children’s book author, community activist and advocate for the autistic community. Over the years she has made it her mission to raise awareness for autism especially in the African American community.Her published works include The Adventures of EchoBoy and Abc Girl, Levi’s World, Respect The Spectrum and My Life in Puzzle Pieces and Are You Okay? A Story by Echoboy. Also winning Book of the Year for 2021 

We discuss the history of the Ronald McDonald House Charities with Mr. Anthony Stover who is the Community Relations Manager for the Philadelphia Region.

Jamilah F. Bashir, is a Senior Education Consultant in Philadelphia, PA.  She has worked in the field of Special Education (Sped) for almost 20  years as a Special Education Educator and Special Education Supervisor. As someone who has many years of experience in the field of Sped, Jamilah brings a wealth of knowledge on how to best support schools and districts with their teachers and students with special needs. (excerpt from Bio)

Host- LVonne McMillan interviews Aisha Christa Atkinson from Texas about her journey with her son, Aries. How she became an educator, instructional coach, and advocate for families. Hear about her journey, her testimony, and how she is changing the world one family at a time. 

Advocate for Me brought the Fathers to the roundtable to hear their journey of having a child with different abilities such as Autism, Premature, and Feeding issues. 

Today's show is Eric Mitchell and Jeppea Smith as they share their journey of Fatherhood with a child with different abilities. It is rare that we hear the father's story as they discuss how they felt emotionally, physically, and how it changed their way of thinking when raising their child. 

What About Me is about a child named David who is entering into early childhood center for the first time. David is nervous and he does not know how to express himself verbally or emotionally. David learns to transition into an inclusive program with the help of a great team- his mom, his teacher, and the staff at the center. 

Listen to What About Me read by the Author L'Vonne McMillan on April 30, 2021 to bring awareness to Autism Awareness Month. 

As we celebrate Women's History Month, we are honoring women who are changing lives and communities through their business/es. They have turned a pain into purpose and are sharing their gifts with the world. We are pleased to have our guest Sherika Duncan is an author of five books who previously wrote her first novel, The Setup, which depicts the true essence of playing the cards that life has dealt in the face of adversity.

As we celebrate Women's History Month, we are honoring women who are changing lives and communities through their business/es. They have turned a pain into purpose and are sharing their gifts with the world. 

Today's episode is with Sederia Brown has transformed her pain into power and advocacy for women through her own testimony. She is a mother of 2 boys, soon-to-be-wife, educator, motivational speaker and entrepreneur. She is the business owner of "Madam TechKnow LLC.,  bridging the technology gap for all generations. Sederia Brown is the author of “I’m Here” Empowering Children To Put An End To Bullying. In honor of the many children in 2018 who committed suicide in result of bullying incidents. Sederia was fueled to start her grassroots organization, The Know Bullying Coalition. She took her passion to advocate for the voiceless and to help children know they aren't invisible and supporting the community members around them. Through all of her adversity Sederia's personal mission in anything she touches is to inspire, educate and show people how to tap into their God given power!

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Ms. Brown Entrepreneur/Educator

For the month of March we will sit down with amazing Business Women that are trailblazing and changing and enhancing people lives. Today we sit down with Judith Dumorney-McDaniel as she shares how she started multiple businesses and the people that she is impacting in Philadelphia and the surrounding counties. 

Meet the Coaches- 

Holistic Healer- Lauren Danielle (Instagram- @souldivinevibes)

Mental Clarity- Allison Gibbs (Instagram- @therapyconciergellc)

FIT Mom- Staci Stills (Instagram- @fitmomstaci)

Special Needs Mom/Advocate- L'Vonne McMillan (Instagram- @advocateforme_lmcmillan)

Follow our Facebook Page- Advocate for Me, LLC 2

Chante shares the importance of having an inclusive after school program in Philadelphia. Thank you Chante for sharing your story and the importance for Advocate for Me, LLC to have this after school program in the community. To learn more about Advocate for Me, LLC please click the link- https://linktr.ee/Advocateforme_lmcmillan

To fund our program please go to the link and click campaign. (campaign ends January 17, 2021) Thank you for your support. 

L'Vonne McMillan 

Founder/CEO

Advocate for Me, LLC 

Jamila shares her reasons for having an after school program in West Philadelphia. 

Jamila shares the importance of having an inclusive after school program in Philadelphia. Thank you Jamila for sharing your story and the importance for Advocate for Me, LLC to have this after school program in the community. To learn more about Advocate for Me, LLC please click the link- https://linktr.ee/Advocateforme_lmcmillan

To fund our program please go to the link and click campaign. (campaign ends January 17, 2021) Thank you for your support.

L'Vonne McMillan

Founder/CEO

Advocate for Me, LLC

Thomasina is a mother, educator, and community advocate for families. She is the CEO and Founder of Taahir’s Village and 

Educator of Different Expectations Child Care. She is on a mission to get the word out to the community about autism and she is doing an amazing work for the Autism community. 

Robert Selby is  a full time father of a CHD warrior Chace Elijah. Together they help bring awareness with a positive spin to the CHD and G-tube community through social media in hopes to let people around the world know that they’re never in a fight alone. They have been on Inside Edition, Good Morning Washington, Good Morning America, Today Show and local news to spread awareness and shine light on our cause.

Today we sit and talk with Philly Speech Therapist Ali Navia and learn some important tips and strategies about children with communication delays. 

Ali Navia is an ASHA-certified speech-language pathologist who provides speech and language therapy services to children and families throughout Philadelphia. Ali has experience working with all populations, from early intervention to skilled nursing facilities. Ali primarily works with toddlers and children with developmental language delays and various diagnoses. Ali is passionate about helping families optimize their child’s ability to communicate. She enjoys creating individualized resources for each child’s learning style and interests to make communication fun, meaningful and engaging.. She has a small private practice, Philly Speech & Language LLC. Ali is PROMPT-trained, PECS Level 1-trained and SOS feeding-trained.

As a Father of an 12 year old who is on the Autism spectrum, Jamiel Owens is truly an advocate for his son Shayne and other Autism parents.
"The Ausome show " has inspired Jamiel to take up his space as a dedicated father and activist through his interaction with others. The Ausome show has also paved the way for Jamiel's presence as an African-American father of a child with special needs to "speak up and speak out" to and from a perspective that is often silent. Raised in North Philadelphia, Jamiel has served his and other communities as law enforcement, civil servant, and is currently an volunteer firefighter in Hatfield, PA.
Jamiel also believes and implements a religious foundation when speaking to other Fathers; he states "fathers' souls are the key to embracing and truly loving their "Ausome" child."

AUTISM ADVOCATE and PRESIDENT OF AUTISM REC talks about being a family oriented, finding her purpose and her faith to continue to advocate for the autism community. 

In this episode we talk about our upcoming projects for the month of October and how we are moving forward during a pandemic to make sure we are getting the word out about Advocate for Me, LLC. We discuss how our families can come together and enjoy this time together before the world opens completely back up and how to adjust in the time that we are in. (game night, reading, dancing, etc). Enjoy your family, schedule enjoying time with them and keep loving each other. 

Be safe. Be Blessed.

L'Vonne McMillan

Founder/CEO

Advocate for Me, LLC

www.lmadvocateforme.com