Citizen Advocacy Organisations - The Challenge of Creating Real Relationships

The Challenge of Creating Real Relationships

The desired effects of this work, in all senses, arise from the naturalness and personal nature of the relationships that a Citizen Advocacy organisation is able to create. One of the key challenges for a Citizen Advocacy organisation is that this relies on the art of being able to identify two people (one 'valued' and one 'devalued') who seem likely to make a personal connection - and on bringing them together in a way which leads to such a relationship.

There are many actions and influences that can undermine these efforts. Problems tend to revolve around existing social expectations for the 'devalued' person. Often society at large will anticipate that this person isn't really worth knowing, and has little to offer - but that they might be helped through paid services or with the assistance of volunteers. Working in an environment where such expectations are the norm, it becomes easy for an organisations practice to drift towards fitting in with them. An organisation might instead find themselves creating relationships where the 'valued' person is seen to be (or sees themselves to be) a volunteer, at which point the activity has become a fundamentally different one. In this case the effects of the work may even be to add to the devaluation of the 'devalued' person (however effectively the 'volunteer' helps the individual with particular problems or issues in their life).