NAN conference 2006 - Brighton

My main impression from the conference this year was that in some way the advocacy community has matured. At the same time there were lots of young and enthusiatic new advocates, often people who had simply seen the jobs advertised and gone for them, but nevertheless they were saying that they were now in the most inspiring and satisfying jobs they'd ever had...

The downside is that some people were still saying they couldn't explain their work to friends or family (or even some (local) government officials) and there is still an issue about what we do, but I don't think that is too big a problem. I like a certain amount of je ne sais quois in what we do, it increases richness and diversity as much as it may cause problems...

On this note, Rick Henderson did ask, somewhat rhetorically, if we should change the definition of advocacy. I almost got up and shouted YES. The definition that dominates all the A4A literature is the hopelessly ungainly and clearly committee devised*

"Advocacy is taking action to help people say what they want, secure their rights, represent their interests and obtain services they need. Advocates and advocacy schemes work in partnership with the people they support and take their side. Advocacy promotes social inclusion, equality and social justice."

My own definition is more like "Advocacy is about ensuring that people can make their voices heard." Although I've just noticed that the definition I published on the Advocacy Action website is a bit different... At least this is simple enough to be understood by the service users who are often being ignored, even if it doesn't meet everyone else's needs.

At the end of the day I was glad Rick's question was rhetorical, and I don't think the definition of advocacy needs to be changed in the way some people seemed to be suggesting. We need to embrace and champion our use of this word, for we do do something unique and special with it, and our organisations and our advocates have matured and become even more powerful and impressive, and our new recruits are being enthusiastic and empowered, and we were all inspired by yet another successful gathering of 170 advocates all being happy about what they do.

I'm already looking forward to next year...

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* The approach developed in Rick and Mike Pochin's book was much better, and it was a shame A4A couldn't do something along those lines.