Tom spoke about Citizen Advocacy as developed by Wolfensberger in the 1960s in Nebraska (US). He described Citizen Advocacy as a coherent service model (model coherency described in SRV: are the right people doing the right things in the right way with the right tools for the right people?) which acknowledges and addresses vulnerability, particularly the hinge wound of rejection.
Tom emphasized the importance of regular evaluation of Citizen Advocacy programs by CAPE (Citizen Advocacy Program Evaluation), an evaluation tool that incorporates and assesses CA programs by relevant and potent core principles, principles that have been shown by decades of experience to work in inviting and supporting lasting advocate-protege relationships.
An SRV parallel of course is the PASSING evaluation tool. For those of us involved in offering informal or formal service to vulnerable people, are we actively seeking regular external evaluation of our service efforts, especially in the form of PASSING evaluation?
Tom is co-coordinator of North Quabbin Citizen Advocacy (Massachusetts, US) and has been involved in teaching SRV and PASSING for decades. He is a member of the North American SRV Training, Safeguarding and Development Council.