What is Advocacy?
Advocacy can be understood as support, encouragement, backing, and/or promotion of an issue or a cause. Advocacy means taking action to make one´s voice heard, to stand up for one´s rights and interests, and/or to achieve a specific goal or a systemic change. Advocacy work presupposes various activities, from developing a message about an issue or cause, to educating relevant stakeholders and the general public about it, to mobilizing supporters, building coalitions, and campaigning.
Advocacy & Disability
In the context of disability, advocacy may mean speaking up writing and/or acting for a person with a disability, or it may mean people with disabilities speaking up for themselves. The objective of advocacy in this context is to promote and defend the rights and welfare of people with disabilities, as well as to empower people with disabilities, enabling them to have greater choices and opportunities. Advocates acting on behalf of a person or people with disabilities should be free from conflict of interest, being primarily concerned with the fundamental needs and interests of the person or people, and be accountable to them.
There are various types of advocacy for people with mental health problems or intellectual disabilities, including the following most common models.
Citizen advocacy: people with an intellectual disabilities or mental health problems are matched with a volunteer, or advocate, and the relationship is long term.
Case/crisis/short-term advocacy: people with mental health problems or intellectual disabilities get short-term help with a specific problem from an advocate.
Self-advocacy: people with mental health problems or intellectual disabilities speak up for themselves.
Peer advocacy: two people with similar concerns support each other.
Professional advocacy: people with mental health problems or an intellectual disability pay for an advocate.
Parent/family/friend advocacy: often for children, and people with profound and multiple disabilities.
Legal advocacy: of people join together to influence broad changes for people with disabilities.
On this website, you will find information about various types and aspects of advocacy, relevant publications and reports, and a list of other useful links.
Selected Sources
Advocacy Strategy: Mencap´s Three-Year Plan for Supporting People with a Learning Disability to Speak for Themselves (February 2004), by Mencap.
Working Towards a Common Understanding of Advocacy (2007), by the National Disability Program of the Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs of the Australian Government.