COA - Council On Accreditation

	Social Advocacy

Introduction

Administration and Management

Service Delivery Administration Standards

Service Standards

Definition

Social Advocacy involves taking action to promote or prevent changes in policies or practices that impact entire groups of people. Advocacy can take many different forms, but efforts are typically designed to educate or mobilize people around an issue of interest in an attempt to persuade an individual or group to make a decision regarding the issue that might not otherwise be made. Organizations accredited under this section of standards should operate a planned social advocacy service to which personnel and other organizational resources are allocated. See SOC 7 for more information about the specific types of advocacy activities that might fall under this section.

Interpretation: Advocacy can address many different types of causes. Examples include, but are not limited to: education; health care; elder care; child welfare; housing; employment; the environment; civil rights; and consumers’ rights.

Note: This service standard accommodates organizations providing a social advocacy service that is designed to work with systems rather than with specific individuals or families. Organizations that provide both Social Advocacy and case advocacy for individuals or families should complete both SOC and the other relevant section of standards. For example, an organization that provides both Social Advocacy and case advocacy for youth in foster care should complete both SOC and FC.

Research Note: Although this service standard is designed for organizations providing advocacy services that are focused on systems rather than individuals, one way for organizations to identify social advocacy issues is through what is known as the case-to-cause process – organizations providing direct services to individuals and families come to see that certain issues impact a number of the individuals they serve, and those issues can then be considered a cause relevant for broader social advocacy.


	PURPOSE: Social Advocacy works to promote positive change and eliminate social, economic, and environmental injustice in social institutions, systems, legislation, and practices that affect individuals, families, groups, and communities.

RELATED FILES


	ADVOCACY An act performed with or on behalf of others through direct intervention, empowerment, or representation. Case advocacy refers to actions taken in relation to a particular individual consumer. Cause, social, or systems advocacy refers to actions taken in relation to a common issue affecting a group of persons.


	PRACTICE Established actions or ways of proceeding in the regular performance of organizational duties. Policies and procedures often guide practice.


	SERVICE One or more organization-operated programs or activities that have a common general objective and deploy the organization's material and human resources in a planned and systematic manner. An organization that publicly promotes or identifies itself in writing as offering a service, is licensed to deliver a service, assigns personnel and/or space to a service, or allocates financial resources to a service is considered to offer that service.


	PERSONNEL The body of employees and/or volunteers that carries out the organization's tasks under the organization's administration and/or supervision. This definition does not include foster parents who are specifically referenced in relevant standards


	CONSUMER The individual, family, group, or community that seeks or receives services.


	CASE A general term used to designate clients (including individuals, families, and groups) served by an organization for purposes of monitoring the provision of services. A foster care case is generally based on the placement of an individual child, although casework for the child may include services to the child's family. A child protective services case is based on an entire family household if a family assessment model is used; otherwise a case is defined as a child.