We recently connected with LVonne McMillan and have shared our conversation below.

LVonne, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

About seven years ago, I was approached to write a chapter in and be a co-author of a book called “Women Thriving Fearlessly”. I didn’t think I had a story to tell, so I turned down the offer from Erika (the person who had contacted me). Thank God that she didn’t take no as an answer.
She followed-up with me and asked what I did for a living and what was my purpose. I told her “I am a mother of two children and caring for my child that has special health care need. And, I also am a contractor working with children with developmental delays and disabilities.” She simply said “That is your story.”
After saying no, two more times. I finally said YES and began working with Erika and the other co-authors on the book. The title of my chapter in the “Women Thriving Fearlessly Volume 1” is Advocate for Me.
Once published, I attended the Chicago, IL book launch. When I returned to Philadelphia, PA, I was receiving phone calls from families that needed school related resources and assistance for their child either transitioning schools or having challenges. So, I provided the families with my available resources.
It was then I began to realize that advocating for families was much bigger than just a few phone calls. So, in June 2018 I launched the Advocate For Me, LLC organization. We provide special needs families with resources, advocacy, and training.
Our first project was a children’s book titled “What About Me?”. The story is about a child named David who is attending school for the first time. He is experiencing some challenges and receives an advocate to assist him and his mother with early intervention services. From there, we began a mission to empower families.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

As a child, I always wanted to be an Elementary Teacher. I went to school at Albright College and received a Bachelor’s Degree in Child and Family Studies/Early and Elementary Education. Well, as time went on, I became a mother of two. 

My journey began with my first born. He was born prematurely at 28 weeks and was in the Neonatal Intensive Care unit for 101 days. I realized I had to become his advocate and that started my advocacy journey. I was already working in the Early Intervention Education assisting families with their children in a classroom or home setting.

Our organization, Advocate For Me, LLC now can directly offer resources, advocacy, and training to families who are caring for their children’s special needs (neurodivergent or disabilities). Along with the services we provide, we host events. Our signature event is Autism Mom’s Night Out, where we sponsor a free event for autism mothers. During the event, we network, discuss various topics and concerns, encourage each other, and most importantly focus on being in the moment. 

As an author, I have written other books both children’s and books for the parents/child’s advocate. This year we are launching a resource magazine for families and the organizations that support them. We have also launched an apparel and merchandise for families to support the costs associated with providing our services.

I feel that I help solve the problems/challenges of families getting access to resources and learning to advocate for their children and themselves. Not only that, we assist in training families, communities and organizations with developing a practice of acceptance and inclusion.

What I am most proud of is my son and his accomplishments. I am grateful that he was able to beat the odds, and he has taken his pain and turned it into HIS purpose. At the age of 11, he told me that he wanted to write a children’s book. During the pandemic, my son wrote his first children’s book “Jordan’s Journey” which follows his childhood experiences of having a feeding tube. After the children’s book, we agreed to work together to establish his nonprofit called the Jordan A. Smith Foundation.

The Jordan A. Smith Foundation (JAS Foundation) was established in 2022 after my son’s numerous years of challenges as child (now young adult) needing consistent medical care. His recognition of the financial burden to our family along with our staunch medical care advocacy for him lead him to form the foundation to support other families who experience the same challenges. 

The organization’s mission is “Ensuring the best care is provided for their special needs child while meeting the financial needs of the entire household.” The goal of the JAS Foundation is to address the challenges faced by the special needs community (which we call “special needs families”). The organization will provide financial, emotional, educational and medical care advocacy resources to lend a helping hand during their long-term journey.

Together, Advocate For Me, LLC and the Jordan A. Smith Foundation have started an annual awards ceremony, where we honor other individuals and organizations that are making a difference in the lives of special needs families. We sponsored our first award ceremony in December 2022 and honored 15 individuals and organizations. This year, we are having the award recipients nominate someone/an organization to be honored.

I want people to know that we have found that the work that we do is often considered unnecessary. I myself remember some staff members use to say to me “Oh, let the parents find their own resources”. However, what they didn’t think about is that as a parent of a child with special medical needs, I might have a different perspective having had to weather the challenges of both finding resources and advocating for my child..  I know first-hand what it is like to have the demanding schedule of caring for a child with special health care needs, working full time, going to school, making sure that child (along with your other children) get what they deserve from the education system, and all while STILL looking for resources on their own. 

We started our services to help families with locating resources in a timely manner, and we will continue to think outside of the box to make sure that they have the resources at their fingertips for all stages of their health and wellness journey. 

Have you ever had to pivot?

My life changed about five years ago. My children and I had to move from our home due to financial challenges and some unexpected life issues. I knew that my life was falling apart, but yet I still pushed to continue my business and write the children’s book.

I had family, friends, and mentors that continue to pour into me on my good days and not so good days. I sought therapy to deal with the depression that I was experiencing. I remember my therapist congratulating me on the children’s book. I didn’t feel as though I had accomplished anything as big as he was saying it was. It wasn’t until a mentor said to me “You can still be on top and be on rock bottom also.” My business was moving, I was doing interviews and being asked to speak at events. All the while, I didn’t know where my children and I were going next.

I vowed to never let another mother experience what I was going through. I promised to build them up and to allow them to have a community to support and assist with moving forward in their lives.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

After our experience, my children and I were able to pick up the pieces and as a family we pushed through our circumstances and continued to help others in spite of our own pain. We strived to put smiles on the faces of other families because we wanted them to experience joy, love, and hope in their journey as well. I think with us being focused on caring for others it gave us a sense of purpose and made us want to continue to do the work that God called us to do.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.lmadvocateforme.com
• Instagram: advocateforme_2
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Advocateforme2
• Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/lvonne-mcmillan
• Twitter: mcmillanvonne
• Other: Listen to Our Podcasts for Inspirational Interviews: linktr.ee/Advocateforme_lmcmillan https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/lvonne-mcmillan
• Magazine: Email us at [email protected] to receive subscription, writer contribution or advertising information

Image Credits
James Montgomery- Photographer (@Jmont_photos)