Citizen Advocacy Organisations - Results of Confusion and Misunderstanding

Results of Confusion and Misunderstanding

Since the creation of the concept of the Citizen Advocacy organisation, these misunderstandings have had a number of effects. The key one is that many organisations use the title 'citizen advocacy' to refer to different forms of activity. For instance alternative activities include:

• having volunteers help to advocate for (or support) people who aren't being heard, and
• having volunteers act as an artificial 'friend' (to help someone cope with their exclusion).

The first of these activities in particular, has been found to have some benefits for some people, and often such organisations in the UK now refer to themselves as practising 'Independent Advocacy'" using volunteers. However confusion is particularly apparent when this kind of organisation seeks to support people by using volunteers in the longer term.

Since these organisations are practising a different activity the founding documents behind the idea of a citizen advocacy organisation often do not fit with their work.

These developments raise difficult questions about the definition of a Citizen Advocacy organisation (program). If the practice of most organisations which use the title is no longer in line with the founding documents, is it correct to say that they are no longer Citizen Advocacy organisations? Or is it correct to say that the practice of Citizen Advocacy organisations has now changed so that the founding documents no longer fit it?