The Citizen Advocacy Story
Do For One was adapted from a well-established practice called Citizen Advocacy. In 1966, an academic researcher named Dr. Wolf Wolfensberger attended a national conference on protective services for the handicapped. It was there he became aware of how impersonal, rigid and limited the current system of human services was. One audience member asked, "What happens to my handicapped child when I'm gone?"
Moved by these needs, Dr. Wolfensberger conceived of Citizen Advocacy, a community based human services organization, and establishing the first office in Lincoln, Nebraska in 1970. In years since, offices have been created in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere in the United States. The largest programs exist in the states of Nebraska and Georgia.
When Citizen Advocacy was created, there already a few types of advocacy being implemented: guardianship, adoptive parenting, property protection, and trusts. But there were problems. There were too many clients for too few workers, which forced staff to spend more time pleasing their boss than serving their clients. There were also conflicts of interests, with one agency taking on multiple, yet conflicting, responsibilities. Plans made for individuals were rarely implemented, often to due to high turnover rates among staff. And clients began to feel despondent, as their emotional needs were unattended.
Citizen Advocacy has a rich history, yet many programs that once solved these problems are dying out. These programs rely on a commitment from communities rather than formal human service structures. The focus now is on the future. When ordinary citizens take personal responsibility, the benefit is for everyone.