The Advocacy Initiative Legacy | The Advocacy Initiative

Why does advocacy matter?

Social justice advocacy is aimed at influencing public policy. It contributes to democracy and aims to nurture and support a society based on the values of justice, equality, inclusion and participation.

President D. Higgins at our inaugural Knowledge Exchange Forum with members of the Steering Committee.

Our Story

The Advocacy Initiative was a three year collaborative community and voluntary project. It resulted from a strong desire across the community and voluntary sector to debate the role and future of social justice advocacy in Ireland.

Participants at our inaugural Knowledge Exchange Forum.

Social Justice Advocacy

Our research provides a snapshot of the social justice advocacy landscape from 2011 to 2014. Who was doing advocacy, what their priorities and strategies were and what challenges they faced.

Ivan Cooper, The Wheel speaking at our 3rd Knowledge Exchange Forum ‘What Works?’.

Our learning

We investigated attitudes to and experiences of social justice advocacy from a range of perspectives. We explored learning and challenges for those doing advocacy, as well as those responsible for making public policy.

Peter Moore, Annie Byrne, Don Bailey, Aaron Abbey and Dermot Walsh at the launch of the Disability Federation Ireland Elections 2014 Campaign outside Leinster House on May 12th.

What's next

The project came to an end in August 2014. To continue our work seven organisations were chosen to manage a number of our projects up to 2017. We hope this will enable our work to evolve and ensure that our learning remains useful for many years to come.

Kieran Murphy, SVP, Catherine Joyce, Barnardos & researcher Kathy Walsh launching ‘In Other Words: Policy Makers’ Perceptions of Social Justice Advocacy’.

Our publications

Over the course of the project we commissioned research to investigate a range of issues. Studies investigated perceptions of policy-makers, the threat to funding & advocacy work, the impact of regulation & many more...

Participant at our 5th Knowledge Exchange Forum ‘Collaboration and Advocacy’

Useful resources

This section features resources from a variety of sources and provides insights into social justice advocacy and the community and voluntary sector in Ireland.

Lydia Campbell-Kiernan speaking at our 5th Knowledge Exchange Forum ‘Collaboration and Advocacy’.

Assess your advocacy

Ever wondered how good your advocacy is? What could you be doing better? This tool will help you to assess your advocacy capacity and identify ways in which it could be strengthened.

Blog & Legacy Updates

To promote debate and discussion, we invited a diverse range of people to reflect on issues related to social justice advocacy. We continue to welcome contributions to our blog…