Family Advocacy

Family Advocacy performs four main advocacy functions:

Builds the leadership and advocacy skills of families;
Works to change the system – Systems Advocacy;
Provides advice and information;
Has a library of resources to support the three functions mentioned above.

Click here to view our Annual report.

Family Advocacy conducts the majority of its advocacy work within five Key Focus Areas as identified as part of the organisation’s current Strategic Plan.

Children and Families
Family Advocacy represents the interests of people with developmental disability of all ages, and has a particular focus on the issues facing families with young children. Getting off to a good start is vitally important in most areas of life, but all the more for families of children with developmental disability. It is very easy to tread the well worn trail which tends to lead families down the separate “disability specific” path. This can leave them isolated, vulnerable and disconnected from their community. Family Advocacy has a focus on assisting families to remain in the typical, generic system as much as possible, seeking specialist support when necessary.
Inclusive Education
Family Advocacy seeks opportunities for all children with developmental disability to be educated, with adequate support, in the same classes and schools as their non-disabled peers. Family Advocacy has a long history of action around this key focus area and will continue to focus on education as a deliberate strategy to nurture inclusive communities.
Post school adult education and training
Family Advocacy has a particular focus over the life of this Strategic Plan, on the new Government Programs for school leavers.
Supported Living
Supported living involves new ways at looking at the support a person with disability needs to live in their own home and be actively included in their community. The support is provided through a mix of unpaid, freely given relationships that are complemented by paid support, tailored to the individual and responsive to changing needs. In supported living, the agency that auspices the support provides a high degree of influence to the person with disability and his/her family.
Building relationships – for people with disability and their families
So much of what makes up the ‘good life’ for people springs from the contacts and relationships that they and their families have. Many people with developmental disability lead lonely, isolated lives. This too, can be the experience of the families supporting them. To turn this around requires conscious thought, planning and action.
People with disability are protected from harm
Within this key focus area sits the organisation’s core advocacy functions – being pro-active around unfolding issues which may lead to oppression, exploitation, discrimination, segregation and rejection of people with developmental disability.