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Advocates: How to Become an Advocate
Relationships between advocates and protégés are long-term commitments fostering mutual support and understanding. |
A Citizen Advocate is a valued citizen, who is unpaid and independent of human services, who creates a relationship with a person who is at risk of social exclusion. The citizen advocate chooses one or several of many ways to respond to and represent that person’s interests as if they were the advocate’s own, thus bringing the partner's gifts and concerns into the circles of ordinary community life.
As the relationships fostered by MBCA are long-term commitments, becoming an advocate is a long and conscientious process that involves getting to know both the prospective advocate and the person with the disability. MBCA identifies the issues a person in need of an advocate is facing as well as key personal characteristics and background history about the individual. We then use this information to determine the desired advocate characteristics for a strong match. We use various sources to identify potential advocates. Upon finding a potential advocate, we speak with and get to know this person. If this discovery process points to a strong match, initial introductions are made. After several meetings, both advocate and protégé decide if they would like to develop a relationship.
If you are interested in learning more about the advocate process, please contact the Macon Bibb Citizen Advocacy Office at 478.743.1521 or by email at maconcitadv@bellsouth.net. | 
