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 CAN’T HELP EVERYONE

If we can’t help you we will try to give you:

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

WHAT IF YOU HAVE A CONCERN OR COMPLAINT?

Sunshine Coast Citizen Advocacy always try to do our best, but if you have any concerns or complaints, we have a Policy in place that assists you to raise any issues that you may have with us. The most important thing to remember is you are able to raise issues that are making you unhappy and know they will be followed up. It is always useful to remember you can talk over issues and problems with your citizen advocate. Please let us know if you are unhappy with us or if you think we can do better – it is how we learn. We also have a pamphlet and a chart that explains how to make a complaint.