INVESTING IN CHANGE

Advocacy

We support social change that depends on citizens in civil society raising their voices as advocates to influence policy, remove systemic barriers, and fight for inclusion to become reality.

For generations, people with intellectual and/or psychosocial disabilities have been treated as “non-citizens” who are incapable of thinking and acting as citizens. They have neither been educated nor supported to develop the capacity to advocate for their right to live in the community in accordance with the UNCRPD at local, national, and

international levels. For advocacy initiatives to be meaningful and successful, the voices of people with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities must be present and heard. INclude seeks to support work that strengthens and develops the capacity of people to speak for themselves and be heard.

Advocacy is the process of citizens voicing their concerns and desires about issues that affect the lives of people and places that they care about. While advocacy is often targeted at government agencies in a top-down direction, local partners can complement these efforts with bottom-up advocacy,

such as constituency building among individual supporters, and alliance building with like-minded peer organizations. INclude works together with the support of its partners to conduct advocacy on priority topics that will mobilize social change that makes inclusion possible.