What do we do?

Advocacy is about people having the opportunity and the power to represent their own needs, views and choices. It is about influencing decisions that may affect their lives.

The BDA provides both personal and collective (group) advocacy. Through our Visible and Valued and Visible Voices projects, the Deaf advocate provides a platform for local Deaf communities to discuss issues with public services, in order to improve cultural and linguistic access for the Deaf community.

A Deaf advocate can act on behalf of a Deaf person, making sure that:

• it is recognised that he/she has equal rights to everyone else;
• he/she has full access to information and services;
• he/she makes impartial informed choices, and is not ignored;

Our service’s Community Advocacy Officers are working to expand and develop User Deaf Forums across their regions. They create networks with professionals to educate them about Deaf people’s cultural and linguistic diversity and equality.

Service providers are beginning to recognise cultural Deaf people as valid citizens, rather than as ‘disabled' individuals, and acknowledge that their language, British Sign Language deserves equal status to English and Welsh.

The aims of our service;

• To provide advocacy training for Deaf people;
  
  
• To establish and develop working partnerships with service providers, in both the private and independent sectors, and local authorities;
  
  
• To provide independent advocacy to enable the education and empowerment of cultural Deaf people in order to become independent, both individually and a collectivelly;
  
  
• To assist individual Deaf people to represent themselves, to gain access to services and to contribute to community life;
  
  
• To educate and empower groups of cultural Deaf people to set up local forums to learn relevant policies and systems, and to challenge these towards modernisation

Why should you use our service?

• Our Deaf advocates have personal experience of discrimination, and therefore empathise with service users. They have knowledge of the law, and understand statutory services and public agencies' systems.
  
  
• Deaf advocates motivate people into advocating for themselves, with the final aim of their advocacy being that their job is no longer needed.
  
  
• The Service is a recognised training provider with its Deaf Advocacy course accredited by the Open College Network at Level 2, equivalent to GCSE Grade C and above, and NVQ Level 2.
  
  
• We follow the Advocacy Charter, created by a national Advocacy organisation, which is a guide for best practice and includes a complaints procedure.
  
  
• Social Services directors and managers value a local Deaf forum that offers them knowledge, allowing the service provider to gain insight into the cultural Deaf experience and learn how to enable cultural Deaf representation and citizenship within their area.
  
  
• We are able to provide the principles and values of enabling independent advocacy.