Social and Health Education Project

 ‘The advocate gave me a lot of time and I’m so grateful for that. I would like to thank her for believing in me, listening to me, helping me.’

Advocacy in SHEP

For SHEP, advocacy is about being beside somebody, supporting them to get their voice heard and accessing their rights and entitlements. It is what we all do for each other as friends and family at different and perhaps difficult times in our lives. It is not about making an assessment and taking decisions about what’s in a person’s best interests. It is about listening, supporting, sometimes questioning or challenging a decision, and sometimes speaking up for a person. It is not complicated but it can be difficult. For SHEP, advocacy is fundamental to our commitment as an organisation to empowering vulnerable or marginalised groups and communities.  We see it as clearly linked to community development, as it plays an important role in developing civil society and bringing about social justice and social transformation.

SHEP has been involved in advocacy for some years and was to the forefront in the development of advocacy for vulnerable older people through a project called Cork Older People’s Advocacy Service. SHEP has also been pioneering the training and deployment of volunteer advocates. This is the defining feature of SHEP’s model of advocacy work. More recently, we have participated very successfully in the pilot Advocacy Project for People with Disabilities (2008-2010) which was funded by the Citizen Information Board (CIB) and which allowed SHEP to offer a high level of representative advocacy through a full-time professional advocate.

More recently,  SHEP has commenced deploying volunteer advocates to provide advocacy for vulnerable older people in a number of residential settings. 

Do you need the support of an Advocacy Service?

Cork Advocacy Service is  a volunteer-based  Advocacy service. The service involves a small team of SHEP-trained advocates  who provide volunteer advocacy in a range of settings under the supervision of SHEP Advocacy Coordinator. For information contact (021) 4666180.