Volunteering plays an important role in disability advocacy in Australia. Volunteers participate in both individual and systemic advocacy, and people with disability engage in disability advocacy as volunteers through advocacy organisations.
In a recent submission, Volunteering Australia welcomed the acknowledgement of volunteers in the draft National Disability Advocacy Framework 2022-2025 (the NDAF). The submission provides recommendations to address that the NDAF omits the important role that volunteers play in ‘systemic advocacy’ and ‘self advocacy,’ with the current draft only making reference to the role or volunteers in ‘individual advocacy.’
The submission also highlights the value of volunteer involving organisations in supporting self advocacy and recommends that their role should be more explicitly included in the responsibilities, reform and policy directions included in the NDAF.
