Citizenship & Advocacy
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Dr Simon Duffy of the Centre for Welfare Reform on “Citizenship & Advocacy” - combined slides from keynote and workshop for the National Advocacy Conference 13th October 2016 - Birmingham
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Transcript of Citizenship & Advocacy
Dr Simon Duffy of the Centre for Welfare Reform on “Citizenship & Advocacy” - combined slides from keynote and workshop for the National Advocacy Conference 13th October 2016 - Birmingham
1. Where did advocacy come from?
2. How is advocacy coping with austerity?
3. Can we start to focus on citizenship and freedom?
4. What is the true role of the advocate?
5. How should advocates work?
6. Is individual advocacy enough?
?Who are we?
Together we choose who to include
(and to exclude) and we choose how we think
about each other.
The rise of the institution
Sir Francis Galton (1822-1911)
Suzanne Evans
“Inspired by the ideas of scholars like Binding, Hoche, and Ploetz, Adolf Hitler came to believe that the future volkish state should aggressively pursue pro-natalist policies based upon selective breeding and the eugenic elimination of the unfit in order to
maintain the racial purity of the German state.”
• Thought leaders - e.g. Wolfensberger, O’Brien, Oliver
• Social movements - e.g. self-advocacy, independent living, supported living
• Civil society developments - e.g. Mencap, People First
Institutions are not constructed with walls, but ideas.
• Thinking has stopped and ideology taken over
• Charities have lost their force and independence
• Government has killed innovation
• The economics of the sector are unsustainable
Today, our modest progress is seriously threatened
http://bit.ly/care-crisis
The Scotsman, 3rd February 2012
“High-earning migrants and promising student entrepreneurs will find it easier to work in Britain as the coalition aims to ensure only “the right people are coming here”, the Immigration Minister has said. Damian Green, a Conservative MP, said middle managers, unskilled labourers and benefit seekers would be kept out as the coalition seeks only migrants who “add to the quality of life in Britain.
Damian Green now runs the Department for Work & Pensions and oversees the Office of Disability Issues.
Public policy is designed to promote stigma
Instead let’s choose to view each other as equals and to value
our diverse gifts.
What’s wrong with Hayley?Absolutely nothing.
1 Corinthians 4:7
Who made you different? What gifts do you have that were not given to you? Why boast as if you gave gifts to yourself?
We can welcome each other as equal
citizens and celebrate the diversity of our
communities.
This is not just a question of
attitude;it’s a political and practical
questionhttp://bit.ly/buy-keys
To challenge these injustices we need to advocate for citizenship - and we
need to start acting like citizens.
• Danish citizens saved nearly all Danish Jews and refugee Jews from the gas chambers.
• After first hiding them from the Nazis they then manned fishing boats and help them escape to neutral Sweden.
• This is true citizenship
1. Citizenship means being equal and different
2. Citizenship means having rights and duties
3. Citizenship is something we do - together
Saying ‘citizenship’ doesn’t make it so. Citizenship is constructed from some essential elements
Citizenship is practical and inclusive
This is the ‘stuff’ of citizenship by which we protect our status as equals1. Finding our sense of purpose
2. Having the freedom to pursue it
3. Having enough money to be free
4. Having a home where we belong
5. Getting help from other people
6. Making life in community
7. Finding, sharing and giving love
1. Capacity – you must start by assuming I have the ability to be in control
2. Specific – if I can’t make some decisions I might still make others
3. Selection – if I need a representative I should be pick them
4. Suitable – any representative should be right for me and my needs
5. Best Interest – representative must seek to help me achieve my goals
6. Involvement – I always have the right to be involved in decisions
7. Review – all arrangements must be reviewed and improved over time
7 principles of freedom or ‘everyone can be free’
cf. Shropshire’s ‘mental capacity hand’
Everybody can be in control - but sometimes you’ve really got to work hard to make it real.
Wendy Perez
• Voice - Wendy’s story
• Control - Michael’s story
• Options - Nan’s story
• Listen - Ryan’s story
• Decisions - Stephen’s story
Issues for advocates
1. Are you there to defend the law or to defend justice?
2. Is the law always just?
3. Why is independent (professional) advocacy now the dominant form of advocacy?
4. What is happening to self-advocacy, peer advocacy, citizen advocacy, community advocacy?
5. Advocacy arose in response to the injustice of the institutionalisation - so what is our response to austerity and the destruction of the welfare state?
?Who are we?
• The battle for citizenship and lives of meaning goes on.
• Margaret had lived life blighted by institutional abuse from an early age.
• She left Lennox Castle Hospital 20 years ago and uses an Individual Service Fund managed by Inclusion Glasgow.
• Over time her service evolved into a wonderful form of shared living and family life.
• But today Glasgow Social Services are planning to move Margaret from her home into a Nursing Home.
NB. Advocates
1. You’re in the citizenship, not the vulnerability, business
2. Independent advocacy is not a solution; it can only be a bridge
3. Power comes from community, not from individual action
4. When the world is unfair we must be careful not to pander to and legitimise injustice
• Where does information and analysis about injustice come together?
• How do we empower individuals, families and communities to take action themselves?
• Where do we dream about and develop a world of justice?
1. Basic Income – time to free ourselves from tyranny of DWP and liberate citizen action
2. Social Care Reform – time to challenge means-testing & funding crisis
3. Devolution - time to put back into our local neighbourhoods with real democratic control and a fair financial settlement
Some signs of hope… or things worth fighting for
q
FIND OUT MORE:
www.centreforwelfarereform.org
@CforWR @simonjduffy
https://www.facebook.com/centreforwelfarereform
