Citizen Advocacy Organisations

Citizen Advocacy Organisations

'Citizen Advocacy organisations' (Citizen Advocacy programs/programmes) seek to cause benefit by reconnecting people who have become isolated from the ordinary community. Their practice was defined in two key documents: CAPE, in 1980 and Learning From Citizen Advocacy Programs in 1987. The theoretical foundation of Citizen Advocacy is found in Citizen Advocacy and protective services for the impaired and handicapped (See also Wolf Wolfensberger) A central idea on which this practice is based is that the devaluation of a person or group by society has profoundly negative effects on their lives. Citizen Advocacy organisations seek to challenge this devaluation by connecting a 'devalued' person with a 'valued' person, prompting the community into valuing the 'devalued' person. It's also expected that the 'valued person' (very often called a Citizen Advocate) will be likely to (and will be encouraged to) stand up for the rights and interests of the other person. In explaining how strongly they will do so it's often said that they will do so "as if were one's own". It's seen the whole activity will be of benefit not just to the devalued person, but to the valued person, the group of people that this devalued person has been seen to belong to, and the community as a whole.