This week is Advocacy Awareness Week, and we are taking the opportunity to showcase how we have been working with the people we support to help them better understand their rights and how to advocate for themselves.
Self-advocacy is defined as the ability to communicate your needs, rights and interests effectively, allowing an individual to be independent and keep themselves safe.
Often self-advocacy can prove difficult for individuals with learning disabilities. This can be due to a lack of confidence or communication skills, as well as access to the right information - lacking knowledge about the rights we are entitled to.
At Cartrefi, we are dedicated to supporting people with learning disabilities to live more independently and reach their personal goals. This is why we are providing safeguarding training to the people we support to help them self-advocate.
This project is being led by Clare Oates, who is part of our Learning and Development team. Clare has created a series of training sessions around human rights and self-advocacy titled ‘Be Safe, Be Heard, Be You!’
These sessions are split into 3, with the first focusing on what makes us feel safe and what we do to keep ourselves safe, the second explaining our core human rights and the third tying the previous 2 sessions together – helping people understand what happens if they don’t feel safe and how to speak out.
Speaking about designing the sessions, Clare said:
“The workshops came about following a request for work with a group in North Wales. However, we quickly realised that this kind of workshop was important to ensure that all the people we support have the opportunity to learn about their Human Rights and how to self-advocate. Taking on a project like this has been a first for the L&D team, as we have traditionally focused on colleague learning and development.
I was excited to be asked to do this, because I have worked alongside individuals with learning disabilities in other environments for many years, so could see the benefits of teaching them such vital self-advocacy skills.”
Our activity coordinators have all undergone training to deliver the sessions in a fun and engaging way in their patches across Wales, maximising the number of people who can access and benefit from them.
Upon completing the sessions, the people we support have access to workbooks which they can refer to, and all receive a certificate to acknowledge what they have learnt.
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Image: Everyone who completes the sessions receives a certificate.
Our Pembrokeshire Activities Coordinator Sally spoke about what a success her first sessions of the workshops have been, saying:
“The people we support in Pembrokeshire had a great start to our Be Safe, Be Heard, Be You workshop, first discussing what makes us feel safe. We learned that everyone has the right to feel safe, whilst also discovering that what makes one person happy or safe, might not be the same for another –and that this is okay!”
Image: Our 'Be heard, be safe, be you' session taking place in Pembrokeshire.
We hope that these sessions will help empower the individuals we support to be able to advocate for themselves and speak up if something isn’t right. These skills are incredibly important and key to bringing about more independence, living safely in their local communities.
Useful links:
- The British Institute of Human Rights – Easy Read Webpage: All Our Easy Read Information on Human Rights | BIHR
- All Wales People First Website: Welcome to All Wales People First - All Wales People First
- The Equality and Human Rights Commission: Homepage | EHRC