Advocacy Groups - Tips for Advocating for Your Child

Tips for advocating for your child

Parents play an important role in their child’s education. It is also recognised within your role as a parent that in some instances, you may need to advocate on behalf of your child if you have concerns about your child’s education. Advocacy involves working with service providers to ensure that the rights, needs, and best interests of your child are represented and considered when decisions regarding service provision are made. Often parents will advocate for their child independently, however, formal advocacy services are available to assist you in ensuring the needs of your child are met. Advocates are available to support you in your interactions with the school and other service providers. At any time, you may wish to engage with an advocacy service. Advocates can assist you in a range of ways, for example:

 providing support to you as you work through a concern or problem with a service provider

 communicating with your school at meetings, including transition and individual planning meetings

 assisting you in finding information and accessing support services

 assist you in ensuring both your rights and the rights of your child are respected and upheld. A range of advocacy services exists within the community. These include services that will provide advocacy services to you as an individual, services that provide training to allow you to advocate for your child and systems advocacy services that address broad community concerns. A list of advocacy services is provided within this tip sheet. N.B. Please note the organisation and links provided within the following section are provided as an example of the services and organisations within the community and are not specifically recommended by the department. It is recommended you contact the Commonwealth Carers and Respite Centre to find out about services within your local area. It is further recommended that each individual parent review the service to determine suitability prior to engaging with the service. Advocacy resources

 National Disability Advocacy Program http://www.fahcsia.gov.au/sa/disability/progserv/providers/NationalDisabilityAdvocacyProgra m/Pages/NationalDisabilityAdvocacyProgram.aspx

 Queensland Advocacy Incorporated (what is advocacy, types of advocacy, key elements of advocacy) http://www.qai.org.au/index.php? option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=32&Itemid=58

 Queensland Aged and Disability Inc (QADA) advocacy fact sheet http://www.qada.org.au/what_is_advocacy.pdf

 French, P. (2007). Everyone Has Rights, Understand Yours. QAI, Brisbane. http://www.qai.org.au/images/stories/docs/1987-2007/doc_214.pdf

 Queensland Parents for People with a Disability. (2011). I Choose Inclusion. QPPD, Salisbury. http://www.qppd.org/images/docs/2011_ichooseinclusion.pdf

 Action for Advocacy Development. (1997). Advocacy Information Sheets. AAD, Brisbane. http://www.qppd.org/images/docs/aad_advocacy_information.pdf

Advocacy groups and information

Organisation Contact (website and phone number) www.amparo.org.au Amparo Advocacy Inc (07) 3369 2500 Blue Skies www.blue-skies.info/ www.carersqld.asn.au Carers Queensland 1800 242 636 http://www.fahcsia.gov.au/sa/disability/progserv/providers/Nation FaHCSIA alDisabilityAdvocacyProgram/Pages/NationalDisabilityAdvocacyP rogram.aspx Family Advocacy http://www.family-advocacy.com www.qai.org.au Queensland Advocacy Inc (07) 3236 1122 or 1300 130 582 www.qada.org.au QLD Aged and Disability Advocacy (07) 3637 6000 or 1800 818 338 Queensland Parents for People http://www.qppd.org with a Disability (07) 3368 3055 or 1800 805 184 www.sufy.org.au Speaking Up for You (07) 3255 1244 The Advocacy and Support Centre (07) 4616 9700