•  Advocacy is free, confidential, and independent of service providers.

•  Advocacy is not new.

•  People do it everyday for themselves, for their children, for their older
relatives and for their friends

•  Concerned individuals do it for people who are particularly vulnerable or undervalued.

•  Practical and emotional support is offered to enable people to express
their concerns, aspirations, and views in order to obtain rights or services.

•  Advocacy is provided on a one to one basis to help protect a person's
rights and interests.

•  Advocacy informs people of their rights and gives them a stronger voice
so that their wishes and needs are known.

•  It is a means of promoting and defending groups or individuals that may
be vulnerable because of age, physical or mental illness, disability
or frailty.

•  Advocacy is about empowering these people to protect and act in their
own interests and welfare.

HOW CAN AN ADVOCATE HELP YOU ?

Advocates can help you to:

•  Make Every Day Or Major life Decisions

•  Have Choice Over Services

•  Have Control Over Services

•  Speak For Yourself

•  Put Your View It Across In The Way You Wish

Advocates Provide Assistance By Helping You To:

•  Plan What To Say

•  Find Information

•  Solve Practical Problems

•  Translate Jargon

•  Attend Meetings

•  Talk To Professionals

•  Make A Complaint

•  Write Letters

•  Make Phone Calls

WHY DO WE NEED ADVOCACY?

•  Advocacy is needed to ensure that people are able to gain access
to their rights and entitlements as service users and citizens.

•  Advocacy acts to ensure human rights, increase positive action and
provide equity to disenfranchised people or groups

•  Advocacy is a primary means of increasing society's understanding
of traditionally dis-empowered and ignored groups of people.

•  Advocacy enables people to achieve maximum independence, make
choices about their life, make their wishes known, and have their voices
heard.

•  High quality advocacy is a key component in combating discrimination
faced by disadvantaged groups

•  To promote inclusion

PRINCIPLES OF ADVOCACY

•  Free

•  Confidential

•  Independent of service providers or other outside influence

•  Allegiance is solely to the people using the process

•  Empowerment

•  First to always listen and then to support the user in being heard

•  Impartial and non-judgemental

•  Inclusive /Non Discriminatory

WHO IS AN ADVOCATE?

•  Advocates are trained volunteers who act in partnership with a vulnerable
person in a way that builds that person's confidence.

•  They are good listeners and skilled communicators.

•  They offer practical and emotional support and are a source of information.

•  They aim to give people sufficient confidence to speak for themselves, but
can, if requested by their person, speak on their behalf.

TYPES OF ADVOCACY

SHORT TERM ADVOCACY

•  A one to one partnership with a person who is not in a strong position
to exercise or defend his or her rights, or who is at risk of being mistreated
or excluded.

•  The issues generally are within the health, social services, or other statutory systems.

CITIZEN'S ADVOCACY

•  One to one relationships between vulnerable people and advocates based
within their community.

•  Often long term

•  Traditionally based in the learning disabled population.

GROUP ADVOCACY

•  Collective advocacy occurs when a group of people unite to campaign
on issues affecting more than one person.

•  Some voluntary organisations campaign nationally while their affiliated
branches campaign locally.

PEER ADVOCACY

•  One person with the skills to self-advocate speaks out on behalf of their
peers, such as in user committees and in client care planning teams.

SELF-ADVOCACY

•  Individuals and groups learn the skills required to enable them to get across their own views and assert their own rights.

•  Group members control and run their own group.

LEGAL ADVOCACY

•  First specialist and professional advocates

• Broad range of methods by which lawyers assist people to exercise
or defend their rights.