ADVOCACY SERVICES IN STAFFORDSHIRE

The term Citizen Advocacy was coined in the 1970's by Psychologist, Wolf Wolfensberger, who believed that people in institutional care needed independent representation by people in their communities if they were ever going to experience normal living. Today, advocacy services are being formed to help many groups of disadvantaged people.

Here at Asist, we believe that this idea of citizen advocacy can be extended beyond the limits laid down by Wolfensberger that closely restricted the boundaries by which volunteers could work with partners. Whilst keeping the absolute essentials of the philosophy of advocacy, Asist believes that each relationship does not have to be life-long, that advocacy can be tailored to individual need, that relationships should be supported by Asist co-ordinators and that volunteers should be entitled to legitimate expenses and that advocates can be paid for this role.

Advocacy is a partnership between two people, an advocate and a person who has experienced any form of discrimination. The advocate's task is to represent, where necessary, their partner's views and interests as if they were their own. Advocates offer support and understanding, sometimes enabling their partners to speak for themselves. Advocates also gather information, allowing their partner to make informed choices.

An advocate enters into a partnership with another person. The 'partners' would be introduced to one another via the advocacy co-ordinator, who makes every effort to 'match' suitable partners, for example some people would prefer a partner of similar age to themselves or maybe an advocate has a particular skill or interest in a specific area of disability. Relationships will vary, according to individual need - some will be short term, to help someone through a crisis situation - some will be longer term.