Citizen Advocacy of Washington County

Four Citizen Advocacy Goals and Ways Citizen Advocates Help Achieve Them

Advocacy

Help ensure that persons with disabilities have the same opportunities and life conditions available to the rest of us.

Some Citizen Advocacy Roles:

• Guide to use the community resources and facilities all use
• Negotiator to see that partners receive appropriate specialized services for his/her educational, vocational, residential, medical needs.
• Advisor when rights are in jeopardy
• Spokesperson when rights are denied
• Monitor of services, treatment and care

Examples:

• One young man was not receiving any education, and due to his advocate’s efforts, is presently attending a local high school.
• An advocate helped a young man initiate (and win) a law suit in small claims court against a dentist who was billing him for services he had never received.
• An advocate helped a young woman move from an institution into her own apartment.
• Three partners live in the same group home and have difficulty with a particular staff person. Each of their advocates has been monitoring the situation and one had talked with the administrator.

Acceptance/Integration

Increase community acceptance and inclusion of persons with disabilities. The involvement of socially valued members of a community with people who have been almost totally devalued is a tremendous catalyst to changing attitudes and values.

Some Citizen Advocacy Roles:

• Friend, Ally, Sharer of joy and sorrow and leisure time activities

• Teacher of valued social skills and behaviors
• Vital link to society’s mainstream. By including the partner in family activities, church, men’s and women’s clubs, the partner has greater opportunities for forming friendships and participating in community affairs.
• Role Model to Others. Through the model they present to family, friends, co-workers, and neighbors, citizen advocates cause other members of their community to change their negative attitudes toward disabled people.

Examples:

• One advocate helped her partner to choose more stylish clothing, helped her get on a sensible diet, and also taught her how to apply make-up.
• Through the friendship of one advocate, a woman confined to a nursing home is now an active member in the advocate’s church and has formed many other good friendships through those activities.
• A husband and wife advocate team helped a young man and his girlfriend join a bowling team which had previously turned them down because they were labeled mentally retarded.
• Many advocates have addressed their clubs/organizations on their experiences as Citizen Advocates and have recruited other people to be advocates.

Protection

Help safeguard disabled persons from abuse and neglect. Citizen Advocacy is a complement to the formal protective services administered by other social service agencies.

Some Citizen Advocacy Roles:

• Monitor of services, treatment, and care.
• Legal Guardian when the need is established through due process
• Adoptive parent for homeless child.
• Conservator of an estate when full guardianship unnecessary

Examples:

• Through the efforts of her citizen advocate, one young woman now has a clean room and a better diet in the nursing home where she lives. Her advocate is also looking forward to the day her partner can move into a community living unit.
• One advocate became his partner’s legal guardian so that he could move out of the nursing home where he was very unhappy, and live temporarily with the advocate until a better living situation was arranged.
• A man with brain damage was unhappy with his guardianship arrangement and wanted it terminated. He had learned to be quite independent and capable with most of his needs except in the area of finances. An advocate was recruited for him as a conservator, the guardianship was dissolved and he is now enjoying a much greater degree of independence.
• One Citizen Advocate Office was contacted to find a family to care for an abandoned multiply handicapped infant. Through the Citizen Advocacy office’s contacts with churches and the ARC, they located a family who agreed to foster placement and later adopted the child.

Strengthen our Communities

Enhance our community by increasing people’s opportunities to help one another, and particularly to help those people who have an exceptional need.

Some Citizen Advocacy Roles:

• Role Model to community
• Speaker for the program at advocate’s clubs or organizations
• Delegated Recruiter for the Citizen Advocacy program.
• Citizen Advocacy Board member

Examples:

• Many advocates share their enthusiasm for the program by giving a talk about their experiences before organizations to which they belong.
• Some advocates volunteer to help recruit people to become advocates.
• Many advocates have served on Citizen Advocacy boards or Advisory Committees.