Citizen Advocacy

Citizen Advocacy Perth West is a not-for-profit organisation that has promoted, facilitated and supported citizen advocacy for people with intellectual disability for nearly 40 years. Today, we are the only citizen advocacy office in Western Australia. We seek out individuals with intellectual disability who have no actively involved family or independent support network. We carefully match them, one-to-one, with a principled, caring citizen, who freely commits to a long-term voluntary relationship as a citizen advocate. An advocate can act as a friend, spokesperson, mentor, and supporter for the person with an intellectual disability to empower them to have a fulfilling life. We use the term protégé to describe individuals with intellectual disability that advocates assist in a peer-to-peer relationship. Many times an advocate is the first person in the life of a protégé who isn't paid to be in their life. The work of Citizen Advocacy Perth West follows Dr Wolf Wolfensberger's principles of normalisation and social role valorisation. We believe in the fundamental human rights of individuals with disability. We support the person-centred approach to promote choice and control for all persons with disability as outlined in the National Disability Standards and are funded by the Federal Government. If you would like to be a citizen advocate or know of someone with an intellectual disability who needs an independent person in their life, please contact us on: admin@capw.org.au or 9445 9991.