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Principles]
Principles are also statements of values which seem to have to be
followed in order to be actually working toward a goal and not against it.
Standing alone each is helpful and good for guiding decisions and suggesting
possibilities for work, plans and actions which are consistent themselves
with the core values.
Principles are not goals which can be accomplished once and for all.
Rather, they are ideas which, when followed with consciousness and
effort, bear fruit.
They have to be constantly held in thought.
The ones following are not meant to be the definitive list. Others will
undoubtedly be added.
But they are principles which almost describe a space which we have to
occupy in order to be even close to and not headed away from protection and
advocacy for people with disabilities
Independence
Independence, in this context, has mostly to do with viewpoint and the willingness
and ability to stand alone without the crowd if need be.
It doesn’t imply being antisocial or isolated.
It does permit or may require standing apart from various ideas, people,
professions, funding sources, agencies, governments when they are not consonant
with our vision.
In advocacy, to the extent it can be maximized, independence assures the
person needing an advocate that the advocate is not in a significant conflict of
interest. It is part of
the integrity of the actor and the action.
It is vital to the capacity to be able to do advocacy.
Without it, the confidence of people seeking advocacy will, rightfully,
be undermined.
Even the appearance of collaboration with the agencies which usually
manage and control people with disabilities and mental illness has to be guarded
against in order for advocacy and protection to have a beginning chance.
Loyalty
to the individual
Loyalty to the individual with the disability or mental illness focuses
attention in two ways and cuts across all components of the advocacy and
protection mission, touching every facet and testing it for authenticity.
First, it focuses attention on the single person who brings the instance
of unfairness to be addressed.
It requires that his or her interest is the one to be held highest from
beginning to end.
Second, it focuses attention on the advocate’s and the advocacy
organization’s ability to have its primary allegiance be to the person: to
identify with the person with the disability, to understand, to stake out a
position beside the person and to stay true. An advocate and an organization
must have in place or put in place the
supports and structures which insure as much as possible the development,
deepening and long life of these requisite elements of loyalty.
Because loyalty means so much and is so often missing, there will be many
pressures in many disguises to trade it off
to other interests.
Especially hard to resist are arguments for ease, convenience,
affiliation, influence, and alliances which compromise independence.
Positive
interpretations and imagery
If principles of independence and loyalty are followed, then the Georgia
Advocacy Office will in public and in people’s minds be associated primarily
with people with disabilities and mental illness -- the people we want to serve.
Because of that, all that we do and say and put ourselves into
association with spills onto the people we want to serve. This happens whether
we want it to or not and whether or not we or the people making the mental
associations are conscious of it.
We and the images around us actually interpret people with disabilities
to the public.
Interpretations or mental images, “seeing” people a certain way, is
likely the single most potent source of devaluation, discrimination, and
exclusion.
Therefore, it is true economy and advocacy and protection to be highly
conscious of the consequences of the images and references we make about the
people we serve.
An advocacy organization and an advocate, to be worthy of the name, must
bend over backward to think, speak and act truthfully while invoking positive
images. Partly,
this will serve to undo the saturation of negative images being manufactured
about people with disabilities and mental illness elsewhere. More importantly,
it will prevent the unintentional undoing of advocacy and protection itself.
Least
possible harm
We are part of a nearly universal history (a story) which systematically
and often unconsciously
harms people with disabilities and mental illness.
We also tend to think of people as parts of groups, though any
individual’s interests may be different or in opposition to the group’s.
Many people who are eligible to be served by the Georgia Advocacy Office
will challenge our ability to really hear and discern what is desired and what
is in the person’s best interests.
Keeping these facts in mind, this principle would direct us to use
self-restraint, to know a person well, to act for just one person at a time, to
take direction from the person however that is possible, to use pathways that
allow for changing direction, to do work in the openness of the person and his
or her family and friends or others who share values and can debate issues.
Range
of remedies
To have available a range of possible remedies is logical.
It provides for individualization: tailoring an approach to fit a unique
person and problem.
It allows for beginning at a low level of protection and advocacy
involvement, expenditure, aggressiveness, or specialization and escalating only
if need be.
It makes one think of many different advocates with different types of
skills, ideas and experiences and personal or professional resources that could
be brought to bear. Its dynamic as a principle mitigates against “cookie
cutter” answers and the stereotyping that protection and advocacy is often
aimed against.
Values
emphasis
Positive social change for people with disabilities and mental illness is
built essentially on the bedrock of
the inherent value of all people.
Failure to recognize and actualize this value has created devaluation and
isolation which in turn creates the problems brought to the protection and
advocacy systems.
People who work for the Georgia Advocacy Office will use their skills and
networks of resources to provide relief-giving measures as soon as possible for
the individuals on whose behalf they work. At the same time, a values emphasis
will provide an understanding of the deeper, broader challenges which face the
group and the community.
Continued study and deepening awareness of the bigger picture will help
prevent an uncritical faith in technical solutions for solving problems whose
roots are at a values level.
Economy
The roots of the word economy are household and management.
In common usage, it connotes the lowest expenditure for the greatest
good. It refers not only to stewardship of financial resources but to the
possibility of expanded outcomes.
It means getting the finest quality affordable and investing in what will
appreciate in the future.
It argues for the versatility and generalization prevalent in small
communities rather than single path approaches and specialization which are more
common with increased size and expense. The Georgia Advocacy Office will always
be asking the questions, “What protection and advocacy is worth more?”
“What protection and advocacy will last longer?”
“What protection and advocacy will satisfy the need?”
“What protection and advocacy will prevent the need for paid protection
and advocacy in the future?”
No longer needing a formal organization to procure protection and
advocacy will be evidence that the vision has been realized.
Citizen
participation
For renewal, relevance, authenticity, economy, diversity, longevity, and
stability, citizen participation is needed in ownership, leadership, and
advocacy roles.
Since society and its members determine social roles and hold the keys to
community membership, social change without citizen participation is highly
unlikely.
Protection and advocacy agencies are relatively new, are not part of key
integrating social structures, and, as presently configured, are dependent on
funding for continuation.
Therefore, they should act as if they will be short-lived and try to
replace themselves with natural protection for people with disabilities ...
natural protection which they can either support or build.
This means changing some of the usual patterns of relationships between
professional staff and the people served and community members.
It means getting information and skills for the purpose of passing them
on; developing ways to share learning and support; fostering interdependence;
and otherwise acting in the supporting role of the ally.
Civility
Civility refers here to activity which is within the realm and reach of ordinary people but on the high edge. It cautions against the exotic or harsh and reminds us of the possibility of widespread protection and advocacy for many by many. It lowers the requirements for who can do protection and advocacy. It references the things that families, friends, and neighbors do for each other for the greater good. Letters, phone calls, persuasion, influence, sacrifice, paying for, taking up for, fighting for, writing about, mounting protests and demonstrations -- civic action - has the capacity to elevate the quality of social life for everyone. It has the potential of finding its way into folk art and literature and theater and creating a different norm. Civility strengthens a community already seen as competent.
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