Would you like to join the Enhance Advocacy Academy?

We were recently sent this information and wanted to share it with you – would you like to be part of the Enhance Advocacy Academy? It’s for all those with two or more chronic conditions.

What is the Enhance Advocacy Academy?

The advocacy academy is a 4 year training programme for developing skills to actively promote support for people who have two or more chronic conditions. The programme provides a support network with peers experiencing similar health conditions, informal skills development in advocacy (campaigning) and a platform for voicing your experiences and stories.

Who are we?

We are part of a research project between Desmond Tutu Health Foundation, University of Cape Town, University of KwaZulu Natal and King’s College London. Together, we are forming an Advocacy Academy specifically for people with many chronic conditions. As part of the ongoing community engagement, we will establish “lived experience” groups of people living with multi-morbidities who will actively contribute to the development of the intervention and become multi-morbidity champions.

What is the Lived Experience Group?

The Lived Experience Group is an opportunity for you to share your experience of living with many chronic conditions to design a package that improves the wellbeing and care you receive.

Through the Lived Experience Groups you will be able to contribute to:

• An intervention for people living with many chronic conditions
• The design of the research to test the intervention
• The decisions around what important patient level outcomes will show whether the intervention is effective

Enhance Advocacy Academy sessions

During each session, we will cover the following types of activities:

• Practicing telling your story, experiences and daily life with your lived experience of your conditions
• Learning advocacy skills
• Learning effective communication skills
• Learning about the different types of communication channels available – art form, social media and story telling
• Learning more about different chronic conditions

“We aim to have 10 to 16 people participate in this programme for the full four years. If you are a person accessing health care in the public system in Western Cape or KwaZulu Natal and you live with many chronic conditions, please contact us to see if you meet the criteria.”

What will happen if I participate?

You will be expected to attend a workshop every 3 months over a four year period, starting from March 2022. Some will be held in person and some may be held online. Some activities will be planned for participants between the workshops for ongoing training, support and networking but this will be minimal (about 2 to 4 hours of activities between sessions).

Do I need to pay for taking part ?

There is no fee for taking part in the course. Your travel expenses will be covered by the research grants which funds this Academy.

What will I receive at the end?

At the end of the course you will receive a certificate of participation.

Who to contact if you’re interested?

Mr Goodman Makanda email: goodman.makanda@uct.ac.za
tel: 078 083 6068

Robyn Curran email: robyn.curran@uct.ac.za tel: 073 344 3829

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