A vital focus of Family Advocacy is supporting families to develop their advocacy and leadership skills and to increase their understanding of how to bring about positive change in the life of their family member with disability.

Recognising that families have different skills, interests, and time constraints, the organisation attempted to nurture leadership via a number of different avenues.

Family Advocacy through our Advocacy and Leadership Development work supports family members to:

• attend events, workshops and conferences sponsored by Family Advocacy;
• enhance their skills and knowledge by undergoing specific training;
• present and assist at Family Advocacy run workshops, conference and events;
• contribute to articles and resources or take part in filming
• attend and participate in meetings with politicians or senior bureaucrats; and
• facilitated interactions with people with fresh ideas and expertise around supporting people developmental disability.

Leadership Training for Families

Developing the skills of presenters Family Advocacy encouraged those that expressed an interest in becoming a Family Leader to gradually
develop their skills, responsibilities, competence and confidence.

One part of becoming a Family Leader involves verbally presenting material and assisting with group work at workshops run by Family Advocacy across the State.

Training is of an ongoing nature, with those taking on this role gradually increasing their level of participation.

Materials are provided and discussed before the relevant workshop. Self evaluation is encouraged and feedback is also provided.

Being a Family Leader provides an opportunity to meet a wide range of people, exchange ideas, have access to the latest resources and to gain experience presenting to groups of
various sizes.

As well as adding to the breadth of experiences able to be shared at Family Advocacy workshops and hence adding to the value of these workshops, these skills and experiences were useful to Family Leaders when promoting the rights and interests of their own family member with disability and when planning for his or her future.

Please contact us if you would like to discuss more about our Advocacy and Leadership program for families.