Human service professionals make an inimitable contribution and that differs from that of bystanders who stay on the sidelines and only remark on the need for social change. Human service aficionados are always inclined to make a sacrifice of their professional lives, and also take personal risks so as to bring about social change. This priceless act of selflessness and sacrifice by human service professionals is referred to as advocacy. Human service professionals are known to put together unique combinations of competencies to their obligation as change agents. These proficiencies include: active servant leadership, advocacy skills, and active listening, and that are acknowledged to help distinguish needs, and also emboldening others by engaging and encouraging individuals, groups, families, organizations or even communities to pursue and embrace changes so as to improve their quality of lives. However, before venturing deep into the role human service professionals in advocacy and social change, it is essential to review the principles and purposes of advocacy, and also study how advocacy affects social change since these two topics are significant to the understanding of the roles of human service professionals.
Principles and Purposes of Advocacy
Principles of Advocacy
Grady (2019) recounted that the principles of advocacy, also the foundations of advocacy, are the basic steps toward realization of successful activism, organizing and maintenance of impactful and sincere advocacy messaging, and also how to complete efficacious advocacy meetings. These principles include: effective planning for an advocacy effort, recognition of allies and opponents, and encouragement of involvement of allies as well as potential opponents (Boylan & Dalrymple, 2011).
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Purposes of Advocacy
Advocacy as a tool of instigating social change can be used to bring about several desirable consequences. One of the main purposes of advocacy is to yield positive changes to the health of a given population. Advocacy can address health issues through implementation of several strategies such as calling for the enactment of a national health policy. Other strategies include implementation of public health policies, and addressing health issues that are associated with harmful traditional practices (“Purpose of advocacy,” 2017). Moreover, advocacy can also be aimed at promoting people’s right and also helping them uphold control over their own lives, and also promoting social inclusion as well as raise awareness regarding the hindrances faced by isolated and excluded individuals. Additionally, advocacy can also be used to empower and support people or populations to speak for themselves, and on behalf of those who are unable to speak for themselves.
Advancing the discussion above, advocacy can also be used to enable marginalized populations to vent their views, be heard, and also play part in decision making functions. Advocacy can also be used to help people survey the range of options available to them and even elucidate on a given course of action. Finally, advocacy is a way of empowering and enabling people to make abreast choices, protects people through fostering good practice, and thwarting abuse and neglect as well as creation of access to important information (“The purpose of advocacy,” n.d).
How Advocacy Affects Social Change
Advocacy is the means through which individuals and organizations single-handedly or collectively seek to create positive social change. Advocacy instigates positive social change by informing, shaping, or influencing effectual decision making and public policies. These are the cornerstones of sustainable progressive social change. Advocacy also affects social change by generating behavior change in different contexts and audiences (“Strategic advocacy for social change,” 2017). Furthermore, advocacy effects positive social change by instilling social inclusion, creation of awareness, and by empowering people or populations; hence, leading to their recognition. An example of how advocacy affects social change is the Women’s Movement which allowed women to be eligible to securing blue-collar jobs. These types of jobs were exclusively for men by the 1960s (“The Women’s Movement,” n.d). Another example of advocacy was the campaign for children’s rights, eight-hour workday, and the minimum wage as was championed by Florence Kelley. Several years after her death, the United States has in place a federal minimum wage, the eight-hour workday is functional, and children are protected from domestic abuse and from exploitation by employers (Dreier, 2010).
Role of the Human Service Professional in Advocacy
The human service professional plays several significant roles during advocacy. One of the most significant responsibilities of the human service professional in advocacy is to uphold or defend a cause, or intercede on behalf of those whose rights they represent. In this capacity therefore, human service professionals engage in defense, intercession, or support with or on behalf of a group, organization, or individuals so as to achieve results that are in favor of those they represent (“Human rights and social justice advocacy groups,” 2015). Advocates therefore actively assist people, individuals, or communities to accomplish things that they face difficulties trying to undertake on their own.
Aside from supporting or advocating on behalf of organizations, individuals, or communities during advocacies, human service professionals also help families, individuals, or organizations learn how to advocate on behalf of themselves. They also negotiate with service systems so as to acquire necessary help on behalf of those they represent. Additionally, caseworkers also paly significant roles in empowering an educating families, or individuals with the intention of making them interdependent members of the society (Child Welfare Information Gateway, n.d). This way, they are expected to be capable of going about future advocacy procedures without having hire external insight.
Finally, advocacy may also involve financing of activism undertakings as in the case with several non-profit Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). This may involve catering for expenses of hiring private attorneys, and assembling of witnesses (Brent, 1980). Human service professionals are also expected to be in possession of an array of skillsets and knowledge that help them discern people, both as individuals and also as groups (“The human services professional,” 2018). Human service professionals must be familiar with human behavior, knowledge on human development, and the influence of economic structures, society, and culture on human behavior.
Conclusion
Advocacy is an important piece of the machine aimed at generating social change. Certain principles guide and ensure success of advocacy incentives. These include: planning for the advocacy, identification of allies and opponents, and engagement of both proponents and opponents during advocacies. It is also important to appreciate the fact that for advocacies to be effectual, human service professionals have to possess competencies, and must also be able to complete certain tasks. Advocacy requires employment of several proficiencies such as knowledge of the determinants of behavior. Human service professionals must also adequately support, uphold, or defend the interests of the parties they represent and also intercede on their behalf whenever they are required to do so.
References
Child Welfare Information Gateway. (n.d). Advocating for families. https://www.childwelfare.gov/topics/famcentered/caseworkpractice/advocating-for-families/
Boylan, D.J., & Dalrymple, J. (2011). Advocacy, social justice and children’s rights. Social Work in Action, 23 (1), 19-30. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/09503153.2010.536212
Brent, W. (1980). Advocacy- a mode of helping in human services: the identification of generalized roles and functions of advocacy for the purpose of developing implications for appropriate professional training. Scholarworks. https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI8019504/
Dreier, P. (2010). The fifty most influential progressives of the twentieth century. The Nation. https://www.thenation.com/article/fifty-most-influential-progressives-twentieth-century/
Grady, T. (2019). Principles of advocacy. Brain Injury Alliance. https://bianj.org/principles-advocacy/
Human rights and social justice advocacy groups. (2015). Guidetoaction.org. https://guidetoaction.org/intlgrps.html
NGO Management Association Switzerland. (2017). Strategic advocacy for social change. http://ngomanager.org/strategic-advocacy-for-social-change/
The human services professional. (2018). HumanServicesEDU.org. https://www.humanservicesedu.org/human-services-professional.html
The Open University. (2017). Purposes of advocacy. http://www.open.edu/openlearncreate/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=175§ion=20.3.1
The purpose of advocacy. (n.d). Correlation-net.org. http://www.correlation-net.org/hep_c_trainers_manual/Module11/11_1_purpose.html
The Women’s Movement. (n.d). Countrystudies.us. http://countrystudies.us/united-states/history-131.ht
