National Coalition of Advocacy Schemes and C.A. Coalition

 

The National Coalition of Citizen Advocacy Schemes was founded in 2001, changing its name to National Coalition of Advocacy Schemes (NCAS) in 2009. It is facilitated by C.A. Coalition, which is a registered charitable company. The twenty third national Assembly was held in Liverpool on 15th October 2025. NCAS is an informal network of local organisations that are involved in the provision of a range of different models of advocacy across client groups. It was established with the primary aim of protecting and promoting informal volunteer citizen advocacy within an Advocacy Plus context. It currently has two main objectives:

 

1. To ensure that advocacy is rooted in the communities which it seeks to represent and is provided by groups that are capable of ensuring this.

 

2. To promote informal voluntary advocacy activity, whether this occurs through the matching and support of citizen advocacy partnerships[1] or through naturally occurring supportive relationships.

 

Membership of the Coalition is open to groups and organisations that are involved at a local level in what we call voluntary informal advocacy activity. This includes supporting advocacy and/or befriending, peer support relationships that are focussed on protecting the rights and dignity of people. Most of our member groups are independent organisations that match and support informal voluntary advocacy activity as either their sole purpose or as part of a range of activities. However, membership is also open to groups that undertake any model of advocacy provided that they:

 

are connected to and directed by the communities in which they work

and

             work to a vision of an holistic and collaborative approach to all forms of advocacy.

(see Vision Statement and Criteria for Membership).

 

In March 2024, we published Looking out for each other – defining informal advocacy. This new policy document provides some useful guidance for those assisting people in speaking up and in having a say in what happens to them. The Coalition’s earlier publications the 'State of Citizen Advocacy' report (2007) and ‘Citizens and Advocacy’ (2009) and ‘Community based Approaches to Advocacy’ define the role that informal citizen advocacy plays in the broader rights continuum. If you would like copies of any of these please contact us at advocacynatcoalition@gmail.com

 

 

For more information on the work of the informal advocacy, please watch the below twenty-minute documentary film 'Taking Care' made by Tashi Kimlord. Password: 202210.

 

[1] Informal advocacy activity includes citizen advocacy relationships. These are defined as one-to-one partnerships that are freely given and voluntary. Their aim is to promote social inclusion and the protection of the rights of a person who is in a vulnerable position. Such partnerships are defined and shaped by the partner and advocate.

 

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