About – Services

Advocacy and support

Sara Bana is an independent public advocate, representing and fighting for the rights of Oklahomans experiencing injustice or other barriers to civic or governmental institutions. She also works as a speaker, broadcaster, activist, and organizer to educate the public and promote justice, nonviolence and positive systemic/societal change.

She founded and serves as the Executive Director of Civic Services Community Advocacy, a nonprofit through which hundreds of individuals have been assisted in dealing with bureaucracy, corruption, systemic bias, discrimination and other forms of injustice.

Her advocacy work includes human rights, civil rights, and consumer rights. Sara’s extensive experience with challenging “the powers that be” includes representing individual Oklahomans, organizations and community groups, minority populations, neighborhoods, families, affinity groups and more. For those in need of a champion, she challenges and overcomes unwritten barriers, unjust laws and policy, institutional bias, and corrupt officials. She seeks to restore the under-served to a position of respect, dignity, equity and justice.

Experience

Sara has advocated for her clients, minority and underserved communities as well as the general public in a multitude of arenas, and on behalf of many causes, including disability rights, gender equality, equal access to education and employment, mental health care and substance abuse services, and residency or citizenship rights. She has presented these concerns to federal, state and local officials, including but not limited to

Federal agencies

• Social Security Administration
• Department of Homeland Security
• Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

State officials, departments and agencies

• OK Department of Human Services
• OK Department of Rehabilitation Services
• OK Department of Corrections
• Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (ODMHSAS) and
• Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (OBN)
• OK Department of Public Safety
• OK State Department of Education
• OK Crime Victims Compensation Board
• Juvenile Justice and OK Office of Juvenile Affairs

Law Enforcement

• Municipal police departments
• County Sheriffs Department
• County Jails
• Highway Patrol/Capitol Police

Judicial system

• Criminal justice agencies
• Federal and county courts

Educational entities

• Public schools
• School boards
• OK Department of Education

Sara also has experience serving as a civil and human rights observer. Her experience includes monitoring reports of abuse in order of making concerning patterns of behavior public record. Capturing and creating records of such abuses is necessary in demanding change.

Methodology

Sara’s approach to public advocacy utilizes social, cultural, political, and legal avenues in raising awareness; creating access to education/information; building coalitions; and strategically challenging institutional barriers working against the interest of the people she serves.

During the past decade Sara and her community-based agency, through collective human power, have petitioned courts, challenged state and federal government institutions/bureaucracies, and occupied public spaces for necessary and healthy progress. An essential part of her advocacy work is exposing corruption, lawlessness, and exploitation of officials, policies, and government bureaucracies profiting off the oppression of the people of Oklahoma.

Her work has resulted in creating access to constitutional/human Rights; programs and services; liberty and equity for the most marginalized Oklahomans who are systematically being denied or delayed access to life-saving concepts or services. Sara believes that eliminating passive forms of violence is necessary in any healthy democracy.

As part of her attention to serving her clients’ full range of needs in obtaining their rights, Sara also provides or coordinates such services as crisis management, conflict resolution, community outreach and coalition building, strategic planning, messaging, public relations, and public speaking.

Record of success

Her work has resulted in creating access to constitutional/human Rights; programs and services; liberty and equity for the most marginalized Oklahomans who are systematically being denied or delayed access to life-saving concepts or services. Sara believes that eliminating passive forms of violence is necessary in any healthy democracy.

As part of her attention to serving her clients’ full range of needs in obtaining their rights, Sara also provides or coordinates such services as crisis management, conflict resolution, community outreach and coalition building, strategic planning, messaging, public relations, and public speaking.