What is an Advocate?
An advocate is a person who argues on behalf of someone else and/or for a specific position on an issue. An advocate takes sides and defends a position. An advocate has the ability to take a position and argue it with conviction.

Role of an Advocate:

Adversarial Process: Taking a position and arguing it is the essence of advocacy: knowing which side you are on and having everyone else know it. Acting as an advocate means you will be challenging authority and the decisions and positions of professionals in your community. It may not win you friends, but it will gain you respect as long as you act with integrity.

Support: The role of the sexual assault support person/advocate is to provide emotional support, advocacy, information, and referral. It is not your role to determine if a sexual assault took place and only police officers investigate sexual assault. Your role is to assist the person in accessing the appropriate services and providing information about options after sexual assault.

Confidentiality: A supporter/advocate respects the confidentiality of the person being represented and does not share any information with anyone without specific permission. In particular, you must not give any information to other agencies without checking it with the person on whose behalf you are advocating.

Disclosure: If you are in a professional or personal position that requires you to report or share information, then you must make that clear to the person you are supporting. For example, any person who becomes aware of child abuse or neglect has an obligation to report. Be aware of your organizations policies on confidentiality and mandatory reporting so that you can inform the person you are working with.

Qualifications: Unless you are a lawyer, you must make clear to the person on whose behalf you are advocating that you are not a lawyer. You must not present yourself as a lawyer, or act as if you are a lawyer before any other agencies/bureaucracies. It is important for you to clearly define to the person with whom you are working, the parameters of your role and the type of advocacy and support you can provide.

Knowledge:

• of the rules: While it is not necessary to be an expert in sexual assault law to be a good supporter/advocate, it is important to know (a) that there are rules (law, regulation, policy); (b) how to access these rules; and (c) some basic understanding of how to interpret them
• of the power structure: One of the most fundamental rules of advocacy is to find out who has the power to make the decision you want. In order to do this, you must have a basic knowledge of how bureaucracies are organized and a basic belief that you have a right to know who's who and to speak to the person in charge
• of the principles of fundamental justice: People who live in a democratic society usually have a basic understanding of these principles
• of the underlying issues pertaining to sexual violence: Understanding sexual assault myths and gender stereotypes and why sexual assault occurs is important in order to provide support/advocacy of victims/survivors of sexual assault
• of the skills and techniques for providing appropriate support. It is important for sexual assault supporters/advocates to be empathetic, non judgmental, patient, and understanding of the effects of sexual assault trauma. Disbelief, judgment, and a lack of empathy and understanding can cause secondary wounding (retraumatization of the person who has experienced sexual violence)

Negotiation: Part of an advocate's role is to try to settle an issue without going to a formal hearing.

Change: Part of your role as a supporter/advocate is to affect policy and social change to improve services for the people you work with.

Healing and Empowerment: Effective advocacy and support assists the person with whom you are working to be empowered and to heal from sexual violence.

Revised from: Fundamentals Of The Advocate's Role: Dalhousie Legal Aid Service, A Community Service of Dalhousie University