How do peer advocates fit into the HRIA project?
As discussed in the first section of this chapter, there are certainly laws that are meant to protect your rights. However, the law isn’t always applied the way it is supposed to be. Sometimes it’s necessary for you to speak up in order to have your rights respected. Sometimes it is also necessary to take action if your rights are violated.
Peer advocates can assist those whose rights are interfered with. They can provide support while also working to ensure that federally sentenced women, especially Aboriginal women and those with mental health disabilities, have someone to insist that they receive the rights to which they are entitled.
The peer advocacy program is intended to train women to work at the local level so as to prevent and correct discrimination against individuals and attempt to remedy systemic discrimination against the groups mentioned above. Knowledgeable and trained peer advocates and community supporters will better enable women to exercise their own rights as well as empower others, especially by standing up for those who are less able or comfortable advocating for themselves.
The typical work of an advocate includes knowing and passing along complete and correct information on how to challenge inappropriate, discriminatory or otherwise illegal actions. In addition, the HRIA peer advocates are also working to prepare women for community release, starting with temporary absences and parole, and providing orientation to new prisoners about what their rights are and what they are entitled to expect while in prison.
What is advocacy?
Advocacy is a form of active support. Active support involves requesting or arguing for something on behalf of oneself or someone else. Advocacy can also involve being a voice for someone who is unable, because they do not know how, or are afraid to speak on their own behalf. An advocate can be any person or any group who seeks justice for another person or group of people.
What types of advocacy are there?
Advocacy can be practiced at the individual, group, or systemic level. Individual advocacy is pursuing the rights or the best interests of oneself or of another person on her or his behalf. Advocacy at the group level involves pursuing the rights or the best interests of an identified group on behalf that group. Systemic advocacy involves pushing for fundamental change for the better in an entire organization, structure, or system.