Citizen Advocacy is where a trained volunteer works as an advocate for an adult with a learning disability
The Citizen Advocate meets regularly with the person, who is the advocacy partner.
The volunteer helps the advocacy partner to get their voice heard. This can help if you are not being listened to when accessing services or trying to get support.
What do Citizen Advocates do?
Our Citizen Advocates aim to:
- Visit and contact their match regularly e.g. every month
- Build a positive one to one relationship
- Develop strong communication with their match and come to know their values, wishes and preferences
- Identify the client’s choices and decisions, but not make or influence them
- Remain independent of services such as housing, care and support
- Remain independent of the client’s family and friends
- Provide information, signpost and support to access appropriate services
- Support the client to speak up for themselves and promote independence
To see what our volunteers do in their roles, please watch this video:
Who Is It For?
Citizen Advocacy is for an adult with a learning disability living in Leeds with:
An ongoing advocacy issue present
A lack of independent people in their life
Becoming a Citizen Advocate
If you would like to become a Citizen Advocate, we would love to hear from you! We offer free training sessions and inductions for volunteers. This includes learning disability awareness training.
To apply to become a volunteer, please visit The Advonet Group’s Volunteering page and download the volunteer application form.
Once complete, please email it to our team at [email protected].
Get Involved
To either become a Citizen Advocate or be paired up with one, please contact us. You can either:
Email Sam, Asking You!’s Volunteer Coordinator, at [email protected]
Call our office on 0113 244 0606 and ask for Sam
