Advocacy is speaking up for someone, something, or fighting for a cause. It is a process of negotiation to assist in having rights and needs met. Advocacy can take many different forms. There’s individual advocacy, citizen advocacy, systems advocacy, parent advocacy, self-advocacy and cause advocacy.
Every time you stick up for a child or relay information about what has happened for a child, you are advocating for that child’s rights. Every time you make a suggestion for improving playground access for a child with a disability, you are advocating for the rights of people with a disability. Every time you become involved in an activity, event or function that helps protect others, you are engaging in cause advocacy.
Because our global children are so vulnerable they will often require us to advocate on their behalf. Frequently children in countries other than our own will have no idea that someone, far away, is advocating on their behalf. In our roles as citizens wanting child safe communities in every reach of the world, we have many opportunities to exercise advocacy.
Because there are so many different and competing rights and great things to advocate for, you have to be very clear about which right or issue you are advocating for and WHY. Can you imagine what would happen if you advocate for a child’s right to attend a childcare centre free of racial discrimination and the local centers thought you were stating that they were not protecting any child rights!
Despite our best intentions of protecting and advocating for the world’s children, sometimes we don’t know how to advocate for children in our own care (sometimes our own children but also other people’s children).
How to be a clear advocate when looking after children:
1. Know what the Convention on the Rights of a Child supports as a universal set of rights,
2. Develop and know your personal/organizational ethics and polices on child protection and non- discrimination,
3. Know who to approach to discuss issues around possible breaches of rights,
4. Know the difference between your own spiritual/cultural beliefs and the universal rights of children,
5. Know how to supervise children, minimize risk and report any suspected child abuse.
As a child therapist, I have always been involved in advocating for the right for all children to live a life free from abuse of any form. As a sexual assault therapist, I am particularly committed to cause advocacy around ending the secrecy of child sexual abuse. The most recent cause advocacy I have been involved in was a Teddy Tour-a-Thon. Sponsored walkers wheeled teddies in prams along a five-kilometer public walk. Each teddy represented a person in our town affected by child sexual assault. The teddies wore little story tags, completed by the survivor. The tags provided a confidential and therapeutic way for survivors to have their say and raise consciousness around the numbers of people living with the lasting affects of child sexual abuse. It was an emotionally moving walk and was lovely to see many community members join forces to protect the most vulnerable in our society: children.
How about you? What sort of child-focused advocacy project have you been involved in?
Related article by Mellisa: You Are Your Child’s Advocate