Guest blog: Robert, what advocacy means to me as a young person

Robert is keen to highlight how social media can influence opinion and raise awareness. Advocacy Awareness Week does just that. You can join the conversation on social media by following our campaign hashtags #AAW22 #HearMyVoice #HumanRightsAdvocacy #AdvocacyinAction #SelfAdvocacyWorks

Human rights and advocacy

It is important that we know what our human rights are both in the United Kingdom and around the world. Without them, society would be out of control in the worst way possible.

This will be separated into two parts: social media and professionals/authority.

How does the use of social media affect our human rights?

The world of social media can be amazing when it comes to discovering your favourite famous figures and celebrities or communicating with other people in a free online setting. However, we must know our human rights when it comes to certain situations and behave ourselves when online.

Here is The Princes Trust Tweeting about their Black Pound Marketplace event as part of Black History Month. This is one of the positive ways of social media use.

How should we approach professionals and authority?

When we need advice on something or someone in authority of some description to be able to talk to, professionals are there to help. But do we know the correct methods of approaching them?

There are two areas I would consider here: confidence and having your voice heard.

Confidence is the more straightforward one. The more positive, determined and confident we are, the better we come across to a professional who is trying to help.

As for having our voice heard, it depends on what the subject matter is. If it is something like mental health and well-being for example, the more you say the better because then we can encourage others to be able to confidently talk about it with pride too.

Robert from Time to Talk Next Steps