East Ayrshire Advocacy Services

Advocacy helps you to have your say in what happens in your life

What is Advocacy?

The person who helps you is called an advocate.

An advocate is an ordinary person who will give their time to get to know you and, when necessary, speak for you or help you to speak up for yourself.

Our advocacy services can help you to understand your rights and choices and speak up about what is important to you.

An Advocate will, if you wish:

  • Act for you only when and how you choose
  • Find out what you think about things
  • Help you to find information
  • Accompany you to meetings, medical appointments and reviews
  • Stand by you when you have to make choices or decisions about things which affect your life e.g where you live or how you are cared for
  • Do things with you not for you

All of our advocates will respect your confidentiality unless there are extreme circumstances when they may have to speak to someone else in order to protect your safety or that of someone else. They would not do this without telling you.

About Us

East Ayrshire will be a community in which every person has a voice.

Established in 1994, through an idea developed by the local community, East Ayrshire Advocacy Services was registered as a charity to provide a free, independent advocacy service, enabling local people with a range of support needs to be heard. Hand in hand, we will support, enable and advise.

From it’s early beginnings, with only one member of staff, the demand for our highly valued service has allowed EAAS to grow to a team of over twenty members of staff.

We believe everyone has:

  • the right to be listened to
  • the right to be respected
  • the right to be involved in decisions
  • the right to have aspirations
  • the right to take risks
  • the right to contribute

 

Scottish Independent Advocacy Alliance

EAAS is a founding member of the Scottish Independent Advocacy Alliance (SIAA), and have been represented on the SIAA’s Board of Directors almost continuously throughout this time.

The SIAA is a membership organisation for independent advocacy in Scotland and advocate for advocacy organisations by promoting, supporting and defending the principles and practice of independent advocacy:

  • Independent advocacy is loyal to the people it supports and stands by their views and wishes.
  • Independent advocacy ensures people’s voices are listened to and their views taken into account.
  • Independent advocacy stands up to injustice, discrimination and disempowerment.

You can find more information here.