Citizen Advocacy: Engaging Georgia Citizens in Protection & Advocacy

Our mission is to initiate voluntary one-to-one relationships between a person with a disability and a person from their community who has complementary qualities and resources. Since 1977, our Citizen Advocacy program has been creating and supporting relationships between ordinary citizens living the “good life” and people who experience developmental disabilities, who are too often vulnerable to isolation or exploitation.

Individuals with developmental disabilities often experience segregation, rejection, abuse, poverty, and injustice. Citizen Advocacy Programs are guided and managed by a Board made up of leading local citizens who are committed to counteracting those life experiences, and fostering the integration and promotion of people with developmental disabilities within society. Through the Citizen Advocacy, a valued citizen, who is unpaid and independent of the human services system, is invited by citizen advocacy coordinators into relationship with a person who is living with a disability.

With the coordinators’ support, the citizen advocate learns to understand, respond to, and represent that person’s interests as if they were the advocate’s own, thus bringing the person’s gifts and concerns into the circles of ordinary community life, while protecting against abuse, neglect, or social isolation.

Friendship, social support, and social change can all emerge from these intentional relationships. By supporting these ongoing, potentially life-long, relationships, citizen advocacy fosters a community where all people’s gifts and talents can be shared and celebrated.

For more information about Citizen Advocacy and how you can get involved, contact Katina Clay at kclay@thegao.org