Types of Advocacy

1
Types of Advocacy

• John Lord
• May 31, 2004
• Brock University

2
What is Advocacy?

• Varying expectations of purpose function
• To plead the cause of another
• - traditional definition, legalistic

3
What is Advocacy? (cont)

• Definition must also include
• - depth of feeling commitment in advancing a
  cause
• - more than what is routinely done going
  beyond the call of duty
• Advocacy often stresses vision, voice, choice
• - what vision is often a key issue
• - whose voice is critical to identify

4
Why Advocacy is Necessary?

• Rights concerned with law social structures
  (e.g. ODA)
• Participation concerned with move to inclusion,
  citizenship, involvement in recovery (e.g.
  Individualized funding)
• Power concerned with shifting power to families
  individuals distributing valued resources
  more equitably

5
Pat Deegan, Mental Health Advocate

• It is not our job to pass judgement on who will
  and will not recover from mental illness and the
  spirit breaking effects of poverty, stigma,
  dehumanization, degradation and learned
  helplessness. Rather, our job is to participate
  in a conspiracy of hopeFirst, we must be
  committed to changing the environments that
  people are being asked to grow in. We must
  recognize that real change can be quite
  uncomfortable and sometimes I worry we will
  content ourselves with superficial change.

6
Dilemmas Advocates Must Face Consciously

• Differentiating between ends and means
• There is power in purpose and advocates need to
  remember why they are advocating
• Easy to get lost in technical aspects of advocacy
• Clear values makes it possible to compromise on
  means
• In dual diagnosis, it takes time dialogue to
  find common ground related to values and purpose

7
Dilemmas Advocates Must Face Consciously (cont)

• Conflict of interest
• Occurs when two interests collide most powerful
  interest usually wins
• Consumers and families not well served when
  service providers are also primary advocate

8
Dilemmas Advocates Must Face Consciously (cont)

• Challenging authority
• Reality that advocacy at some point involves
  challenging authority
• Causes anxiety leads to avoidance of conflict
• Deference to authority quite common
• Not all are suited to step up for cause

9
The Potential of Advocacy to Imagine Better

• Getting the analysis right
• asking the right questions
• Grievances criticisms tend to drive advocacy
• Grievances cannot define vision values are key
• Key questions enable groups to focus advocacy on
  right understanding

10
The Potential of Advocacy to Imagine Better
(cont)

• Being educated about better
• Both a personal collective process we imagine
  better possibilities explore these
  possibilities with others
• Imagining better is about dreaming values

11
The Potential of Advocacy to Imagine Better
(cont)

• The complexity of imagining
• in dual diagnosis
• where to begin? is often a challenge
• how to address link two systems?
• Success has occurred where champions of change
  understand the strengths limitations of both
  systems, the value of involving individuals
  families
• Complexity can be daunting for advocates

12
Forms of Advocacy Their Strengths and Limitations

• Self- Advocacy
• Individual Advocacy
• Agency Advocacy
• Collective Systemic Advocacy

13
Forms of Advocacy Their Strengths and Limitations

• Self- Advocacy
• Process whereby individuals advocate for own
  needs, interests or grievances
• Strength lies in conviction of the person
• Difficult for authorities to ignore personal
  pleas
• Self-advocacy training creates awareness of
  oppression and rights
• Limitation lies in its limited impact on social
  policy

14
Forms of Advocacy Their Strengths and Limitations

• Individual Advocacy
• Process whereby professional or volunteer works
  11 with represents the interests of
  vulnerable person
• Strength lies in its voluntary relationship,
  compassion, and commitment to the other
• Advocate must truly listen represent the
  persons cause as if it were ones own
• Most effective when individual advocacy links to
  broader issues
• Limitation is that few human service workers have
  the independence or courage to be advocates
  Joyces story

15
Forms of Advocacy Their Strengths and Limitations

• Agency Advocacy
• Agencies often assume they do advocacy
• Strength lies in the resources available to
  mobilize action
• Few success stories of agency advocacy
• Successes involve agencies where some staff do
  not provide direct services
• Its limitations are fourfold bureaucracy,
  mandates, conflict of interest, professionalism
• Professionalism - clients the least powerful
  group

16
Forms of Advocacy Their Strengths and Limitations

• Collective Systemic Advocacy
• Involvement by a group to promote defend the
  rights of those it represents
• Strength lies in its collective, broad support
• Many potential strategies lobbying, legal
  action, litigation (e.g. two autism families)
• Limitation related to difficulty of escalating
  carefully
• Key is relationship building appropriate
  strategies

17
Limitations and Shortcomings of Advocacy

• Advocates are imperfect and
• mess it up as we all do
• Tendency to be single issue focused dual
  diagnosis issues get ignored
• Failing to include the vulnerable person
• Few advocates have knowledge of both systems
• Few people in human services are really
  strategic

18
Limitations and Shortcomings of Advocacy

• Other strategies can be
• just as powerful
• Sometimes advocacy for system change not the
  right direction (e.g. Support Clusters)
• Building community demonstration projects very
  powerful in creating learning impact

19
Keeping Advocacy Grounded in Hopes and
Possibilities

• Need for vision and practical solutions
• Advocacy cannot just be critical
• Vision and values need to outline possibilities
• Practical solutions help others see possibilities
• Cross-system resource teams in British Columbia
  came out of this kind of advocacy

20
Keeping Advocacy Grounded in Hopes and
Possibilities

• Social movements maintain
• energy and commitment
• Advocacy for inclusion, citizenship,
  individualized support grounded in social
  movements
• Important to connect with social movement groups
  (CMHA, Community Living Ontario, People First,
  Canadian Association for Independent Living
  Centres, Council of Canadians with Disabilities)

21
Keeping Advocacy Grounded in Hopes and
Possibilities

• It is about NOT separating the
• personal the political
• Advocacy is ultimately about what we stand for
  our compassion, principles, belief in the worth
  of every human being
• Self-help and social action cannot be
  arbitrarily separated. At some point helping
  ourselves includes joining together as a group to
  fight the injustices that devalue us and keep us
  in the position of second class citizen. (Deegan)

22
Keeping Advocacy Grounded in Hopes and
Possibilities

• Personal and political advocacy is about the
  little things and the big things
• It is about inspiring ourselves and others with
  our hopes for a more humane world
• It is about having the wisdom to know when to be
  quiet, when to make noise, and how to build
  relationships for change