What We Do

Pembrokeshire Advocacy provides the following services:

• Crisis advocacy – working on a 1:1 basis with clients facing difficulties such as homelessness, financial abuse, family breakdown, problems with service provision, or dilemmas raised through transitions from home to living independently.
  
  
• Self Advocacy – group work with clients, in Social Activity Centres and residential units throughout Pembrokeshire, to develop the individual’s capacity to express themselves and take a full part in meetings. These groups enable some of the most vulnerable clients to self refer for crisis support.
  
  
• Family Project – this group works with families at risk where the parent has a learning disability. The Project focuses on topics such as Housing, Child Care, Education and Health. This group addresses issues through peer support and by inviting speakers from the statutory sector to discuss the concerns of the families. The Finding the Right Support document, produced by the Norah Fry Research Centre and funded by the Baring Foundation, highlighted the barriers to the provision of appropriate support for these families. England benefited from substantial funding as a result of this research but Wales was left out, even though it took part in the study. Pembrokeshire Advocacy is currently involved in directly reporting our families’ experiences to the Learning Disability Wales forum which informs Westminster. This takes our participation in service provision to strategic Government level.
  
  
• Training Project – as part of self advocacy, 16 people undertook accredited OCN training to build their capacity to take effective part in meetings and self advocacy groups. This project was undertaken in collaboration with Pembrokeshire College. Pembrokeshire Advocacy hopes to offer this training in future.
  
  
• Pembrokeshire People First – has been established under Pembrokeshire Advocacy’s umbrella. It is affiliated to All Wales People First whose remit is to “support people with learning disabilities to speak up for themselves and overcome discrimination by providing a collective voice.”
  
  
• Advocacy awareness raising events for staff and residents in Residential Units.