GAO History
Georgia Advocacy Office, Inc. (GAO) is a private, non-profit corporation.
- GAO was founded in 1977.
- GAO is mandated to exist by federal legislation and receives federal funding that comes with that mandate.
- GAO has seven different programs, each begun when a different piece of federal legislation was passed.
- Most programs use a combination of supporting self-advocacy, citizen involvement, staff advocacy, and legal advocacy to protect and advocate for the rights of Georgians with disabilities.
- GAO also focuses on community building and partnering with self-advocates and community associates to widen the network of support that is available in Georgia for people with disabilities and those who care about them.
- Citizen Advocacy is another strategy that is used to protect and advocate for individuals with developmental disabilities in several communities in Georgia. Citizen Advocacy happens when a valued citizen, unpaid and independent of human services, creates an intentional relationship with a person who is at increased risk of abuse, neglect, and social exclusion. 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 forth into the circles of ordinary community life. GAO believes relationships with people who are loyal and free from conflict of interest are what make all people safer. It also helps create a space for our communities to be enriched by all of its members.
Overview of Programs
GAO has seven separate protection and advocacy programs and an eighth program regarding Representative Payees of Social Security beneficiaries
PADD (Protection and Advocacy for Individuals with Developmental Disabilities)
PADD is the first Protection and Advocacy (P&A) program, created by the Developmental Disabilities Assistance and Bill of Rights (DD) Act of 1975, which was reauthorized in 2000. P&A agencies are required by the Act to pursue legal, administrative, and other appropriate remedies to protect and advocates for the rights of individuals with developmental disabilities under all applicable federal and state laws.
PAIMI (Protection and Advocacy for Individuals with Mental Illness)
The PAIMI Program was established by the Protection and Advocacy of Mentally Ill Individuals (PAIMI) Act of 1986. The P&As are mandated to protect and advocate for the rights of people with mental illness and investigate reports of abuse and neglect in facilities that care for or treat individuals with mental illness. The Act was subsequently amended to allow P&As also to serve individuals with mental illness who reside in the community.
PAIR (Protection and Advocacy for Individual Rights)
The PAIR program was established by Congress under an amendment to the Rehabilitation Act in 1993. PAIR programs provide for services to persons with disabilities who are not eligible for services under the previously established P&A programs. With PAIR, the P&As were authorized to serve persons with different disabilities including hearing, visual, and mobility-based disabilities.
PAAT (Protection & Advocacy for Assistive Technology)
The PAAT program was created in 1994 when Congress expanded the Technology-Related Assistance for Individuals with Disabilities Act (Tech Act) to include funding for P&As to assist individuals with disabilities in the acquisition, utilization, or maintenance of assistive technology devices or assistive technology services through case management, legal representation, and self-advocacy training.
PABSS (Protection & Advocacy for Beneficiaries of Social Security)
The PABSS program was established in 1999 when the Ticket to Work and Work Incentive Improvement Act (TWWIIA) was enacted into law. Under this Act, grants to the P&A programs provide advocacy and other services to assist beneficiaries of Social Security secure or regain gainful employment.
PATBI (Protection & Advocacy for Individuals with Traumatic Brain Injury)
The PATBI program was created in 2002 to provide protection and advocacy services to individuals with traumatic brain injury. Although P&As often served such individuals under PADD, PAIR, or PABSS, this grant provides more resources specifically to address the unique needs of this population.
PAVA (Protection & Advocacy for Voting Access)
The PAVA program was established in 2003 as part of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA). Under this program, P&As have a mandate to help ensure that individuals with disabilities can participate in the electoral process through voter education, training of poll officials, registration drives, and polling place accessibility surveys.
Representative Payee
In March 2018, the bipartisan Strengthening Protections for Social Security Beneficiaries Act of 2018 unanimously passed in Congress and was signed by the President on April 13, 2018. This bill created a new program for P&As to monitor Social Security Administration (SSA) representative payees. A representative payee is designated to receive Social Security Disability or Supplemental Security Income benefits for a person who has been determined to be not fully capable of managing the individual’s benefits. This new program began August 1, 2018 and directs the P&A to conduct periodic, onsite individual, and organizational representative payee reviews along with additional discretionary reviews. In addition, GAO may conduct educational visits and conduct reviews based on allegations we receive of payee misconduct. This new program provides vital accountability services to protect the rights of SSA recipients.
Our funders include the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, (Administration on Community Living and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration), the Rehabilitation Services Administration, and the Social Security Administration.
GAO also belongs to The National Disability Rights Network (NDRN) which works on behalf of the Protection and Advocacy Systems (P&As) and Client Assistance Programs (CAPs), the nation’s largest providers of legal advocacy services for people with disabilities.
NDRN promotes the network’s capacity, ensures that P&As/CAPs remain strong and effective by providing training and technical assistance, and advocates for laws protecting the civil and human rights of all people with disabilities.
The Georgia Advocacy Office is organized primarily around the principles of loyalty to people with disabilities and independence in our advocacy. Central to our work is the understanding that people with disabilities have the right to self-determination, protections from harm, and the opportunity to fully exercise their citizenship rights and responsibilities. In line with these principles, the Georgia Advocacy Office uses a broad range of remedies including systems advocacy, individual advocacy, outreach, support to individuals to become self-advocates, Citizen Advocacy, litigation, training, and education. The GAO monitors State hospitals serving individuals with disabilities and responds to calls involving community-based services. The GAO provides individual advocacy ranging from technical assistance to litigation in United States federal court to ensure that the civil liberties of individuals with disabilities are protected.
To learn more about the initiatives of GAO and the priorities of the GAO programs please see What We Do.