Things you need to know:

Citizen Advocacy is unlike any other Disability Advocacy service …

• The concept calls for the establishment and support of a one-to-one relationship between a person with an intellectual disability who has unmet needs in one or more important life areas, and a resourceful and principled citizen who makes a personal, voluntary commitment to provide emotional and or practical support required to help meet the person’s needs.
• Citizen Advocates are INDEPENDENT. They will do what they think is best for the person.
• Citizen Advocates are not paid, reimbursed or compensated in any way.
• We are a small program with limited capacity, covering a large area – we can’t help everyone we would like to help.
• Your enquiry does not guarantee your entry into the program.
• We do not keep a waiting list of people needing assistance.
• We do not have advocates waiting to be matched.
• We do not merely rely on referrals to meet individuals who need support – we will go out into the community and find the most vulnerable people ourselves.
• It can take considerable time to find the right advocate for someone, often several months.
• The only promise we can make is that we do our best to respond respectfully and helpfully to every enquiry we receive.

We support people with intellectual disability who:

• need it the most;
• have limited or no effective supports around them;
• who are vulnerable, at risk and have unmet needs
• are of any age;
• are living within the Sunshine Coast area.

CITIZEN ADVOCACY IS NOT:

• A welfare program;
• A buddy program;
• A volunteer visitor program;
• A crisis care service;
• A part of NDIS.

WE CANT HELP EVERYONE

If we cant help you we will try to give you:

• Other places to go
• Other phone numbers to ring
• Other people to talk to.