POLICY & ADVOCACY

Policy and Advocacy is a core element of the work SCIA does. Advocacy can be defined as speaking, acting or writing on behalf of the interest of disadvantaged individuals or groups. Our advocates help people with disabilities, family and carers who struggle with receiving the adequate supports they need.

SCIA helps advocate for needs in four main aspects:

Self Advocacy

Supports people with disability to advocate for themselves. or as part of a group. As part of self advocacy, we often deliver training sessions to people with disabilities who work in Australian Disability Enterprise (ADE).

Family Advocacy

Our Policy and Advocacy team help parents and family members advocate on behalf of the person in their family who has a disability. Often family members of people with disabilities are already facing a myriad of issues that require advocacy, so our advocates take the strain off families and take on some of the issues until a resolution is found.

Individual Advocacy

We also provide targeted advocacy support to individuals who may be experiencing difficulty in areas such as service provision, access to housing and accommodation, accessing suitable transport, getting access and eligibility to income support or employment services. Our team of advocates help clients navigate these processes to get issues addressed and pursue better outcomes to a degree that meets people’s needs.

Systemic Advocacy

The policy work we do do is broad and covers national, state and local issues in any domain that affects the lives of people with spinal cord injury and other disabilities. Any policy decision or regulation or law that has a negative impact on the lives of the disability community, be it access or inclusion or participation, is likely to have an influence on the work that the team do counter this. This comes in many forms such as lobbying decision-makers and funders (government and non-government) to pursue changes.