Chatham-Savannah Citizen Advocacy

Savannahians helping Savannahians for more than 40 years... 

Citizen advocacy happens when a citizen who lives on "thick ice", who is unpaid and independent of human services,creates an intentional relationship with a person who is at increased risk of abuse, neglect and social exclusion due to our society's response to people with developmental disabilities. The citizen advocate chooses one of many ways to understand, respond to and represent the partner’s interests as if they were the advocate’s own. 

This allows the gifts and concerns of the person with the disability to be brought forward into the circles of ordinary community life.

 Citizen advocacy is built on one-to-one, freely given personal relationships between two people. One is a person with a disability who has often been excluded from typical community life, and the other is a person who is living a good, ordinary life here in our community.

Citizen advocacy coordinators and board members work under a guiding set of principles in order to make the strongest possible match between people.

1. Each citizen advocacy relationship is freely given.

2. Each citizen advocate is independent of human services, the citizen advocacy office, and, if necessary, his/her advocacy partner’s family. Loyalty to the individual person allows the advocate to speak out and act with freedom and clarity.

3. Most citizen advocacy matches are established with the hope of developing a long-lasting relationship, some of which may be life-long.

4. Each citizen advocate looks for ways to bring their protégé’s interests, gifts and needs to the larger community in ways that are dignified and enhancing to the person.