What does Citizen Advocacy allow you to do?

Citizen Advocacy…

• Is based on positive, natural human responses to need and vulnerability
• Is grounded in community
• Regards every person as a valued human being with skills, rights and roles in community
• Can find people who have very little access to services and miss out on getting support
• Everything is undertaken according to well defined principles and practices proven effective over 40 years of successful operation in numerous western societies
• Utilizes universally recognised principles of building and maintaining relationships

The strengths of the model are that:

• it is based on natural human responses to need
• the people most in need are at the heart of the program
• it redefines the person in need as a valued human being
• the relationships are on a 1:1 (or near 1:1) basis
• the relationships are freely given (unpaid)
• there is the capacity to find people who would otherwise be forgotten or lost
• the presence of the advocate can prevent crises from arising
• Advocates are not managed, restricted organisational volunteers of the program which ensures their focus and loyalty is with the person in need
• the advocates are independent
• well defined principles and practices form and underpin the model