How does empowerment differ from advocacy?

Answer 1

In terms of social work, empowerment is looking to the client population you are working with and enabling them to see a strengths perspective in themselves. It would be looking to that client and population, addressing what they can do to find an outcome in whatever is going on with them at the present time. This does not mean that as a social worker, you would be leaving them to do it all. Often times, doing too much for someone creates them to rely on said help instead of learning to help themselves over time with some teaching. Example: "You can give a man a fish and feed them for a day, or you can teach a man to fish and feed them for a lifetime". Advocacy is expressing support for the client and the population whether to a micro, macro or mezzo level. It is standing behind the belief of what you as the social worker feel is "right". An example is in the verse previously stated above: A social worker stating that man named needs a fishing pole and standing firmly in that belief in an attempt for it to happen.