Our citizen advocacy project continues to create one to one partnerships between people who have learning disabilities and members of their local community who act as advocates.

In 2005-6 the citizen advocacy project supported around 150 advocacy partnerships. A major area of work has been in helping to put into effect the vision set out in the ‘Valuing People’ white paper, and in helping people affected by the Government’s ‘Supporting People’ initiative. The citizen advocacy project is core funded by South West Dorset Primary Care NHS Trust, with additional funding from Dorset Social Care and Health.

Letters were written and payment was made to the Army Historical Disclosures Centre for copies of service records and further information was requested from the Army Medal Office.

While trying to piece together all the information, trips were made to libraries, museums and memorabilia shops. It was becoming increasingly harder to piece together the information from the service history and facts from books. During this time the advocate and partner spoke to a medal and wartime memorabilia specialist. He was happy to use his experience to piece together a personnel army story and put the information gathered in context.

Advocate and partner travelled by train to meet this man who was able to tell stories and explain what was written in the service records in a language that could be understood. From this meeting the advocate was able to write a story for the partner, which was checked by the specialist. The medals his father would have been entitled to were also obtained and displayed correctly. 

The story has now been put into a small photo album so it is easy to carry; it also contains pictures from books and a few personnel photos. The advocate and partner are continuing with their research to expand the book.

The gentleman concerned has now had his fathers medals presented to him by a retired Colonel at the military museum. This was a very proud moment.

It is clear from this story how important advocacy can be. We know there are many more people who could benefit from having an advocate.