Imagine a life over which you have little control.

You have no say in where you live, who you live with or what you do each day and most of the people in your life are paid to be there.

This is the experience of many people with an intellectual disability.

Citizen Advocacy believes that enduring  relationships have the best capacity to protect people with an intellectual disability from harm and provide a sense of belonging to, and connection with, their community.

Citizen Advocacy Auckland began in 1990.  We establish and support one to one relationships between a person who has an intellectual disability and is vulnerable (a protégé)  and a resourceful, principled citizen who is free from conflict of interest and is unpaid (an advocate).

Customised Employment Works

Primarily we find an advocate for people who have an intellectual disability who are:

• Highly vulnerable
• At risk of neglect or harm
• Aged 18+
• Living in Auckland   
• And who have limited or no effective unpaid support around them

Citizen Advocacy is not:

• A welfare program
• A buddy program
• A volunteer visitor program
• A crisis care service

A citizen advocate strives to represent the interests of a person as if they were the advocate's own; therefore, advocates must be sufficiently free from conflict of interest. Some of these commitments may last for life. Citizen advocates are supported by the Citizen Advocacy office. 

"I became involved with CA when someone needed an advocate urgently for what was thought to be for a short time only.  I have now been an advocate and friend of Linda for 15 years.”  LIZ

Although citizen advocates are unpaid and do not get reimbursed in any way, the work of establishing new relationships and supporting existing ones requires a paid staff member who works from our office. 

Your generous donation will help us to increase the number of people with intellectual disability we can match with a citizen advocate.

"Transforming our community one match at a time"