Step eight: Review progress
You should regularly take stock of what you have achieved. Are there tactics that are not working? Then review and revise them. You need to communicate consistently with all your partners and alliances to ensure they are all working together. Remember that change can take time – you often need to be patient and prepared to stay committed for the long term. You can learn more about having a plan and checking how it is progressing in Module 5.
Activity 2.4: In your practice
It comes to your attention that there is a rising number of cases of physical violence against children in your community.
- How would you undertake advocacy with children?
- What kinds of advocacy techniques could you use?
If you are working in a group try to come up with at least three ideas for each question.
Discussion
- It can be particularly difficult for children to talk about violence but in a group children may be able to talk about how they experience violence in the community and what they would like to change. You could help them discuss what action they would like to take or who they could try and influence. Then discuss how they might achieve this – asking to meet someone in the community, making a poster, etc.
- What strategy you use will depend on your role but you may have thought about starting with colleagues who you can share your concerns with, or managers within your own health setting. You may use this quiet form of advocacy to ensure the development of some child protection policies or that the existing ones are used properly. It may be that an individual case has not been dealt with properly and that a young person may need someone to highlight this. You may have thought that rising violence against children in the community may need a broader strategy perhaps liaising with other professionals, bringing it to the attention of the relevant authorities in the community or finding out how to raise public awareness.
In order to take the issue forward, it helps to do some research into how many cases of violence there actually are, and the children could help to collect this information. You might also want to find out from parents what they thought about the issue and whether they were also concerned. You would need to find out what the law currently does to protect children from violence and whether the problem is inadequate legislation or poor implementation of the laws that do exist. Once you have done your research, you can then decide what needs to change and where you need to focus your advocacy.
Step seven: Decide your strategy