Advocacy-Counselling A Double-Entry System of Social Welfare

Abstract

The Riverina Council for Social Development Ltd. is a regional social planning and development authority. It operates the Australian Assistance Plan (A.A.P.) in a rural region of New South Wales. As a fully funded Council (annual budget of $331,000 up until June, 1976) it had the economic power to experiment with new forms of social welfare provision. One of these experiments is called Advocacy-Counselling. As the architect of this scheme, the author shall in this short article define the concept and attempt to justify its role and necessity in the contemporary Australian social welfare scene.