Client Advocacy
Inside & Outside the Office
Cristelle Audet, University of Ottawa
Linda Wheeldon, Acadia University
Andria Hill-Lehr, Nova Scotia Community College
Kiraz Johannsen, SyMetric Sciences Inc.
May 15, 2013
CCPA Conference (Halifax, NS)
Overview
 Welcome and introductions
 Warm up: “Trivial” pursuit?
 Advocacy self-awareness
 6 advocacy competency domains
 Applying advocacy: Meet “Evangeline”
Purpose:
To learn about and apply advocacy skills when
addressing systemic oppression that impedes client
wellbeing.
“Trivial” Pursuit?
Need 6 teams of 5 or so people per table
Each team will get the same questions
One question at a time, select an answer, write it down
Each team holds up their answer
Next question!
TRUE OR FALSE?
Close to 50% of adults
with low-level literacy
live in low-income
households.
TRUE
Only 8% of those with high-level literacy
skills live in low-income households
What portion of Canada’s
homeless population consists
of youth?
A) one fifth
B) one third
C) half
D) three quarters
B) Almost 1/3 of Canada’s “true” homeless
population (not just those living in
emergency shelters) are youth aged 16
to 24
TRUE OR FALSE?
Average tuition for
international
undergraduate
students is twice as
high than for
Canadian students.
FALSE: Annual tuition for international
students is 3.5 times higher, that is $18,641
What percentage of LGBTTSQQ youth are
homeless?
A) 0 – 10%
B) 10 – 25%
C) 25 – 40%
D) 40 – 55%
C) 25 to 40% of LGBTTSQQ youth are homeless
TRUE OR FALSE?
There are emergency
shelters in Toronto for
the city's LBGTTSQQ
youth who find themselves in need.
FALSE: 25 to 40% of homeless youth identify
as LGBT, but in Toronto—which promotes
itself as Canada's gay capital— there are no
emergency shelters or crisis services
specifically designed for them
Aboriginal persons make up what percent of
Canada’s federal prison inmate population?
A) 18%
B) 23%
C) 32%
D) 41%
B) While just 4% of the population,
Aboriginal persons make up 23% of
the federal prison inmate population
TRUE OR FALSE?
Canada has an
official governmentsupported poverty
measure.
FALSE: At present, the government has yet
to agree on a definition of poverty. . .
TRUE OR FALSE?
‘Wage Gap’ is related to education:
There is less disparity in
income between men
and women who have
less education.
FALSE: Men at lowest literacy and income
level are more likely to earn twice what
women earn
In 2006, compared to the national average of
6.3%, unemployment was highest for which
active group in the labour force?
A) lone parents
B) persons with disabilities
C) recent immigrants
D) Aboriginal persons
D) Unemployment was highest among
Aboriginal persons at 14.8%
TRUE OR FALSE?
Immigrants to Canada
work primarily in low-skill,
low-paid jobs with little
job security because they
do not have enough education.
FALSE: 1 in 10 Canadian-born university
graduates work in low-skill jobs compared to
1 in 4 recent immigrant university graduates
work in low-skill jobs
According to the UN, in terms of child
poverty among 35 industrialized nations,
Canada ranks:
A) 3rd
B) 5th
C) 19th
D) 24th
D) With a child poverty rate of 13%,
Canada ranks 24th
TRUE OR FALSE?
Heart health is best
addressed by focusing on
societal factors such as low
income, hunger, poor
housing/shelter, and lack of social support.
TRUE: Research has increasingly identified
societal factors—compared to lifestyle issues
of tobacco use, diet, and physical activity—as
major causes of heart disease
In 2011, unemployment was highest for
which age group active in the labour force?
A) 15-24 years
B) 25-54 years
C) 55-65 years
D) 65+ years
A) Unemployment was
highest for youth at
14.2%
Advocacy
“Act or process of advocating or supporting a cause or
proposal, one that pleads the cause of another, and one
that supports or promotes the interests of another”.
“The belief that individual and collective actions are
necessary to fight injustices that lead toward improving
conditions for the benefit of both individuals and groups”
(House & Martin, 1998)
Self-awareness
Complete the brief questionnaire by circling 1 of 3
choices under each item:
 Almost Always
 Sometimes
 Almost Never
 Are there patterns in your responses within or across
each of the 6 “squares”?
 Where do you feel “most active”? “least active”?
6 Advocacy Competency Domains
Acting
with
Acting on
behalf
Client/Student
School/Community
Public Arena
Client/Student
Empowerment
“laying
groundwork for
self-advocacy”
Community
Collaboration
“developing
alliances”
Public
Information
“awakening the
general public”
Client/Student
Advocacy
“responding to
external barriers”
Systems
Advocacy
“altering the
status quo”
Social/Political
Advocacy
“influencing
public policy”
Micro level
Macro level
Advocacy with Clients
Meet “Evangeline”. . .
 In small groups, select a facilitator to report main
points to larger group debrief
 Discuss Evangeline’s circumstances:
What form of systemic oppression did you observe?
Which advocacy competency domain(s) would you call upon?
What kind of advocacy interventions did you come up with?
Wrap Up
We hope you walk away with . . .
 Some new advocacy literacy
 A sense of community
in social justice action
 Greater comfort with
speaking about complexity of ‘being the change’
Social Justice Chapter of the CCPA
www.counsellorsforsocialjustice.ca
contact@counsellorsforsocialjustice.ca
References
Chi-Ying Chung, R. & Bemak, F. P. (2012). Advocacy and Social Justice (pp. 169-185). Social
Justice Counseling: The next steps beyond multiculturalism. Sage Publications: Thousand
Oaks, CA.
House, R. & Martin, P. (1998). Advocating for better futures for all students: A new vision
for school counselors. Education, 119, 284-291.
Ratts, M. J., Toporek, R. L., & Lewis, J. A. (2010). ACA Advocacy Competencies: A Social
Justice Framework for Counselors. ACA: Alexendria, VA.