BSHS 485 What is Advocacy

What is Advocacy?

BSHS 485

What is Advocacy?

The helping profession is not a profession that is full of glitz and glamour. In a professional organization, human service workers are neither rich nor famous, and their advocacy on the behalf of others rarely makes for newsworthy coverage. A human service professional is our modem day champions, trying to change the world by helping one person at a time. In comparing the role of a champion, being a human service worker is not a job but a calling and a way of life that not all people are cut out to do. In contrast to the champion, human service workers do not just save the day, but provide tools, support, and education for people to help themselves in times of crisis. The paper will discuss the purpose of advocacy and how it affects social change. It will address and explain the principles and purpose of advocacy and how advocacy affects social change. Included is this paper will be examples of advocacy success and advocacy failure and how they have affected social change.

Principles and Purpose of Advocacy

Advocacy is not stagnant but an action that pursues to make certain that individuals, especially thosevulnerable in society, to be heard on matters that are significant to them. Advocacy pushes to have these problems considered when decisions are being made about the people lives in which the human service worker is trying to help. Advocacy is also a process of helping individuals defend their rights and explore choices and options that they may not think were available to them. Although much has been written about how to advocate with legislators and other government decision-makers to achieve change for society, most advocacy begins at a grassroots level; merely a matter of thinking and acting as an advocate in our daily life (Mahar, 2008).

For some individuals being an advocate can be an uncomfortable feeling especially for those who are new to the field of human service. Advocacy can be filled with conflict, confrontation, and harsh criticism. The principles of advocacy can be broken down into a few essential components that prove vital in the role of advocacy. First is to understand the issue. No one goes into a fight not knowing who, what, and why they are fighting. It is imperative to have a good knowledge of the matter that is being advocated. The Community Tool Box states, “It is important to develop a deeper upstanding of the issue, including research, to analyze of who are the key players are in your advocacy campaign” (Work Group for Community Health and Development, 2016). Advocacy is about power, strength, and influence.

Second, recognizing who are the allies. Allies are the people who give you support, assistance, advice, information, and even friendship. Working with partners directly helps to achieve more with the best results possible. Allies should be individuals and groups who have the same passion and drive to further along the advocacy campaign. “In addition to deciding whether other groups have an interest in your cause, it’s important to find out if an alliance with them is in your interest,” states the Community Tool Box.(Work Group for Community Health and Development, 2016). Some allies may bring other issues of problems that may take away from the task at hand.

Identifying opponents and who the resistance ones are is the last principle. Once allies have been identified the next step is to define our opponents and the resistance that may occur. Making a change is not easy, and not everyone will be for it. Like our clients, our communities and society become complacent and learn to live with the issue at hand. If the plan is to build a homeless shelter, then the opponent and resistance will mostly be homeowners that live in that area. It will be important to find out what their resistance is and how it can be alleviated. The purpose of advocacy is to create positive changes to the health and wellbeing of the community. Advocacy is the chance to effect policies and programs. The purpose is to provide a solution to specific problems and build support and networks that can attack issues that are affecting society.

Social Change and Advocacy

Advocacy for social change is essential for human service workers and nonprofit organizations. Most agencies rely on grant money to fund their programs and every year they are asked to do more with the little funds that they get in funding. “The non-profit sector is being asked to shoulder a disproportionate, unfair and unworkable share of the burden left by politicians slashing the public social safety net,” states Rick Cohen (2003). Lack of funding has made it necessary and important for individual grassroots advocacy programs to come to the forefront of social change.

Candy Lightner, the founder of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), realized that there was a need for stricter sentencing for repeat offenders with DUI’s after her daughter was killed in a DUI accident. A small grassroots campaign evolved into a national and international organization that has effects on us today. Her advocacy and determination changed the legal drinking age from 18 to 21 due to the efforts of MADD. Rating the States (RTS) was started by the efforts of MADD which is a report on the nation’s fight against drunk driving. RTS is proof that media advocacy is useful when promoting state legislatures to pass new laws (Russell, Voas, DeJong, &Chaloupka, 1995).

Martin Luther King Jr. fought to advocate for the rights of African American men and woman. The Montgomery Bus Boycott was instrumental in ending segregation on public buses. His grassroots and peaceful protest crippled the bus company. In 1956, a federal court ruled that bus segregation is unconstitutional. In that same year, the Supreme Court confirmed the ruling and abolished all laws requiring segregation on buses. One man’s belief, vision, and dream that all men are created equal became a reality on to this day segregation is considered unconstitutional.

No Social Change

Advocates are not always able to make the changes they set to do. An example is stated by Sonfield and Rachel (2001), “As part of its reworking of the nation’s welfare system in 1996, Congress enacted a major new abstinence education initiative, projected to spend $87.5 million in federal, state and local funds per year for five years.” The program was intended to stress abstinence for teenagers, yet not all schools were on the same page as to what the abstinence-based sexual education should incorporate. Each state had its definition of what constituted sexual activity, so no set program was taught. The initiative itself was unclear and vague regarding certain issues. A program that could have changed the statistics of teenage pregnancy and STD transmission lacked focus on how to implement the program.

Conclusion

Human service workers have often been associated with advocacy and strong leadership. They are strong in the courage to fight for those who cannot fight for themselves. They believe that advocacy is not only important at the micro level but needs to follow through to the macro level as well. Advocacy helps to improve our lives also. Working to get individuals excellent services, in clean environments, and in safe areas helps to improve our quality of living. Although advocacy can spur social change, one must realize that not every campaign is successful and advocates must keep in mind that failure is not an end.It is the beginning at another chance to make a change.

References

Cohan, R. (2003, September). Advocacy for Social Change in Metropolitan Washington. Retrieved from http://ncrp.org/files/SocialChangeDC.pdf

Mahar, B. (2008, Jan/Feb). Grassroots Advocacy is Where It’s At. Strategies, 21(3), 35-36. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/214567743?accountid=458

Russell, A., Voas, R. B., DeJong, W., &Chaloupka, M. (1995, May). MADD rates the states: A media advocacy event to advance the agenda against alcohol-impaired driving. Public Health Reports, 110(3), 240. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/230145293?accountid=458

Sonfield, A., & Gold, R. B. (2001, July/Aug). States’ implementation of the Section 510 abstinence education program, FY 1999. Family Planning Perspectives, 33(4), 166-177.

Work Group for Community Health and Development. (2016). Community Tool Box. Retrieved from http://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents