Service Delivery: Empowerment and Advocacy in Information and Referral

Information and Referral is about much more than providing the “I” (Information) and the “R” (Referral). It is about empowering people to help themselves both now and in future situations; while it is sometimes also about advocating for people who are not currently able to help themselves.

Empowerment and advocacy are fundamental principles of I&R. 

This interactive course is for Information & Referral (I&R) Specialists who handle human service inquiries from the public and the supervisors who oversee this essential work. The course describes the nature of empowerment (helping people to help themselves) and advocacy (when people really need additional support) within the context of I&R.

The course was written by AIRS staff member, Clive Jones, a former President of InformCanada, who is responsible for the AIRS Certification Program, in addition to assisting with training and standards development. It was adapted from material within The ABCs of I&R (copyright AIRS).

This course may not be applicable to human service professionals engaged in case management activities.

AIRS is the nonprofit Alliance of Information and Referral Systems at www.airs.org.

Learning Objectives

When you have successfully completed this course, you will be able to:

1. Define the concept of empowerment within an I&R environment.
2. Describe the meaning of advocacy in I&R and identify situations in which advocacy is necessary.

Recognize the difference between individual and system advocacy and     examples of each.