Bexley and Bromley Advocacy

What is advocacy?
Advocacy is one person helping another person to make their needs and wishes known. The helping person is called an advocate and the person being helped is called a partner

Advocacy is about having someone on your side to speak up for you.
Advocacy is about making sure people listen to what you have to say
Advocacy is about making sure your rights are respected

Who can be an advocate?

An advocate can be paid or can be a volunteer with an advocacy project
An advocate is good at listening to people and making sure they put the person's views forward and not their own
An advocate is trained and police checked before working with a vulnerable person

What does an advocate do?

An advocate gets to know the person they are advocating for
An advocate helps people to find information
An advocate makes sure their partner is listened to

Robert says 'If I didn't know BBA, I would not be here in my new home now. They helped me to move and I am very happy'. Robert recently moved into his own flat. His advocate made sure he had a choice where he lived. She went to meetings with him and made sure he got the right amount of support.
'They are nice friendly people and are good at what that they do. When people use big words and I can't understand my advocate explained it'.

What does an advocate not do?

An advocate does not give advice
An advocate is not a befriender or a family member
An advocate does not say what he or she thinks is best for their partner

What kinds of advocacy are there?

Self Advocacy is about joining with other people to learn about speaking up for yourself together. Self Advocacy groups are a good way for people to learn how to speak up for themselves
Citizen Advocacy is when an advocate is matched with a person with a disability for a long time and the advocate is there to help the person with ongoing issues in their life
Short Term Advocacy is when an issue needs resolving and when it is sorted out the person does not need an advocate anymore. Short term advocates can work with more than one person at a time
Crisis Advocacy is when there is a crisis or urgent issue that needs resolving. Often paid advocates will do this work