Hi:
I live in Ottawa, but much of my work is in the US. Currently, I am working for an organization which works with communities to create societal change via policy advocacy. This organization is funded by an American foundation.
The best advocacy includes a broad cross-section of people and not just those who are directly impacted. Locally in Ottawa and Quebec, the faith-based communities joining with women, the poor and the homeless among other groups to draw attention to police brutality during demonstrations as well issues of poverty.
Bertie
Maria Barile <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Hi Fiona,
I'm a non-practicing social worker, from Montreal. I share your perception
of the double split in our system. A little bit of history (at least in
Quebec this split started in the mid 80's with the requirements of who could
get what grant to provide what type of services.(use your imagination as to
what and why) this The split is primarily related to $$. It's a reality
experienced in all areas not only disabled person's organization. I
suggest you take a look at Bureaucracy and Community L.Davis, E.Shrage.
Maria
----- Original Message -----
From: "Fiona Lewis"
To:
Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2003 12:47 PM
Subject: Disability Advocacy
I am a social work student in Canada and my partner is a disabled advocate
in a social service agency for disabled people. My observation is that the
advocacy work is split into individual advocacy and system advocacy. The
individual advocacy involves assisting people to obtain entitlements such as
medical equipment, income assistance, home support services, etc. The
system advocacy involves lobbying various levels of government to improve
accessibility, services, etc. In my experience, the individual advocacy can
quite easily take over so that there is very little time for system
advocacy. This is not ideal as sometimes more can be accomplished for a
greater number of people by advocating at the system level. In Canada,
there is very little funding for advocates at all so all the disabled
advocates I know are overwhelmed by their workloads. On another note, I
think disabled advocates are much more effective than non-disabled advocates
as far as disability issues are concerned. Meetings with government staff
seem to have a much different (and better!) tone when a disabled advocate is
present as compared to a non-disabled one.
Fiona Lewis
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