galway girl photo header

Advocating for Change

Being a voice for social and policy change

As an organisation, we understand the importance of addressing the underlying inequalities, policies and gaps in policy that lead to marginalisation and disadvantage.

COPE Galway’s advocacy role and strategy focus is to be a voice for social change on the issues that negatively impact the lives of the people who use our services.

We advocate to bring about changes in legislation, public policy, administrative practice and attitudes.

We also aim to empower people to advocate for themselves and claim their entitlements. And where necessary, we represent and negotiate on behalf of our clients.

COPE Galway advocates for change that tackles the causes and consequences of homelessness and domestic abuse and to ensure that older people in our communities are able to age well independently.

Seeking change in public policy

We are continually identifying and pursuing opportunities to influence public policy where possible and make submissions to policy processes and planning.

Ahead of national and local election campaigns, we engage with candidates asking them to commit to addressing issues and that affect people who are homeless, women experiencing domestic abuse and older people.

Advocating on behalf of clients

Where needed, our services teams will advocate on behalf of our clients with relevant agencies and organisations to help them access their benefits and entitlements.

Working with the media

We send out frequent news releases on homelessness, domestic abuse and issues affecting older people in the community. The local and national media have been very supportive with publishing our campaigns and we are very grateful for this.

Public Information and Engagement

We regularly hold events and workshops with schools, colleges, agencies and other community groups. At these events, our services inform and engage with people on topics including addressing homeless, preventing domestic abuse, ageing well in Galway and ways they can help create change. We also actively engage with audiences on social media to raise awareness and gain support for our advocacy for campaigns.

Recent advocacy campaigns and news