Finally, in this Sub-Chapter on creativity in strategic thinking I’d like to mention outreach work.
I define outreach work as walking around a locality where a high proportion of families who might form part of our Focus Group live. It is important to note that the walking around is done with the sole purpose of building relationships with young (and some not-so-young) people. Because I did this type of work for 12 years and I observed – at first hand – its positive impact, I am very biased towards it!
To kick-start our thinking on this I’d like to consider what we do when we want a problem solved. For example, if our tap is leaking, or our window is stuck, or our car won’t start. We engage with a practitioner who solves the problem, pay him or her, and we then – generally – forget about that person until the next problem arises.
If it is a health problem it is not much different. We go to a doctor or nurse, or the local clinic or pharmacy, and when the health problem is resolved, we do not go there again until the next one crops up. Of course, we are encouraged to go for regular medical check-ups but this is like bringing our car to a mechanic before the NCT – it’s just to make sure everything is in working order, and we usually see it as a chore.
With an emotional problem it is slightly different – but for the majority of us, not much. We may go to see a counsellor and when we feel that we are content and can live a stress-free, happy life we finish counselling. Of course, if we are interested in personal growth or development beyond solving the problem we may continue with counselling or therapy or get further involved in education in this area. But if we do this we are in a minority. The majority of us simply want our problem solved and then we move on.
What I am getting at here is that practitioners (whether they are plumbers, doctors or counsellors) are largely irrelevant in our lives until a problem arises, and then, when the problem is solved to our satisfaction, are irrelevant until a problem arises again.
So, what about a situation where we are in deep emotional distress but we don’t know it or won’t admit to having a problem until our behaviour causes others to put pressure on us so that we are coerced into admitting that we have!
That is, we get into trouble, find ourselves in court, facing a prison sentence, are excluded from the family home or even hostels for homeless people, or similar. Or, indeed, are in deep distress because of the behaviour of a loved family member but are fighting an uphill battle to correct his/her behaviour so that it will not be causing us and everyone else problems, bringing anger, fear and shame on our family.
Typically, in such situations, there is a desperate need to solve the problem and we turn to someone for help. However, when the problem is solved, or ameliorated – like the plumber, doctor or counsellor – the person who assisted is largely irrelevant until the next problem arises.
I will digress here to ponder on the purpose of crisis in our lives – because, unwelcome as it is at a conscious level, it does have a purpose! To help us in this let us consider the result of crisis, that is, getting loads of attention from others.
So perhaps – and I don’t know this, I’m only speculating – an unconscious purpose of crisis may be to get loads of attention. And during crisis we give ourselves permission to ask for attention, we usually get it, and we feel that we deserve it. Very often, people who are deeply hurt might not perceive themselves to need help and/or, more importantly, don’t feel that they deserve positive attention when they are not in crisis.
When crisis passes, very often rather than using the respite from crisis to build on any healing that we might have experienced during the crisis, we forget about it altogether until the next crisis. We perceive those who have helped us in our crisis to be, at best, those-who-we-will-turn-to-again-when-the-next-crisis-happens and, at worst, interfering-busy-bodies-who-won’t-leave-us-alone. In both scenarios, people are only relevant when we need them.
So faced with the above realities, how do we, concerned people who want to help others (and – hopefully – build safer communities) ensure that we are relevant in someone’s life during the very times that are optimum for growth, i.e. when people might have a lot of energy available – the between-crisis times!
This is probably the biggest challenge facing helping agencies, and I refer once again to the research How Are Our Kids referenced earlier. The research posited that turning to someone in our own community or extended family, someone who is a familiar face, someone we know will listen and who is consistently available is the favoured option for the vast majority of people.
Visibility of our organisation is significantly enhanced by walking around the community with no agenda other than to build relationships with people who need assistance, but who don’t usually go looking for help unless they are in some sort of crisis or other. Usually, the people who are met on walkabouts are children and young people, but, as we all know, children and young people are a definite route into parents and extended family members!
Outreach work as described above (which is quite different to, for example, visiting people in their homes, or giving soup and sandwiches, or even engaging people for a particular purpose i.e. addressing addiction, homelessness etc. – all very worthwhile activities) goes a long way towards solving what I call the relevance problem.
That is, the challenge of staying relevant in people’s lives when crises have passed.