Advocacy Awareness Week 2021

This week we are taking part in Advocacy Awareness Week organised by the National Development Team for Inclusion (NDTI) to raise awareness of the role of advocacy and provide examples of #AdvocacyinAction to help people understand what advocates do and the difference they make to people's lives. We’re incredibly proud of the way our team of advocates adapted to the challenges of working remotely during lockdown so one of our Advocacy Managers Sharon Horne has written a blog about our experiences of this which has been published on the NDTI website and our own website at www.yvc.org.uk/single-post/advocacy-awareness-week-2021. We’ve also published a case study shared by one of our Advocates, Emer Chatterjee, that really shows the difference our support can make to people. In this example, Emer supported a mother of two young children to secure a bigger package of care that has made a real difference to her life by enabling her to take her children to clubs, shop in a way that suits her needs and get support to wash her hair which means she can keep her chosen hairstyle rather than be forced to change it due to lack of help:

“AB said she felt able to put her points of view across to the social worker as I was there supporting her and defending her right to get the support hours she desperately needs to live her life.”

You can read the case study at www.yvc.org.uk/single-post/advocacy-awareness-week-case-study. We provide statutory advocacy services for people living in Newcastle and South Tyneside - for more information please contact Advocacy Managers sharon.horne@yvc.org.uk and sharon.dejesus@yvc.org.uk.