Transatlantic Practice Exchange Day Six: Being Strengths Based is about Hope. Now.
For the next two weeks I’m in Grand Rapids, Michigan, as part of the Transatlantic Practice Exchange, find me on twitter @ruthfranciszka and follow #homelesslearning
This afternoon I sat in on a first meeting between a consumer
and a Housing Resource Specialist (HRS) here at Community Rebuilders.
The consumer explained that she and her young daughter were
currently homeless. *
The HRS instantly focussed in on the consumer’s strengths,
her recent employment, family supports, transport, previous tenancies. There had been a previous eviction but the conversation explored the
circumstances around the eviction and found strength there too: resilience, the
ability to remove yourself from harmful situations, consistent payment of rent.
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The HRS explained the service to the consumer and the partnership
that would exist between them to find her safe, suitable, permanent accommodation.
As well as the consumer’s strengths, the HRS outlined the strengths the organisation would bring to this partnership: deposit and first two months’ rent, guidance
and tips on accessing the private rented sector, support to build relationships
with a landlord, and a joint mission to find housing in the next 21 days.
Had the session focussed on the circumstances that had led
to the consumer’s homelessness she would have left feeling hopeless; but because
the session was strengths based the consumer left with resources, lists of
landlords, a reassurance that she deserves housing and has the competency to
find it herself, with support if and when she needs it.
I discussed afterwards with staff, the risk of overwhelming
service users with information on the first meeting. They agreed that this is a
fine balance: not giving people so much to do that they feel the task of
finding housing is impossible and give up instantly; but not holding them back from using
their strengths to find housing on their own timescale. The session I
sat in on in stressed the urgency with which the organisation saw this
person’s housing situation and the participant was encouraged to contact the
agency again within the next 24 hours to update them.
Strengths Based case management is often accused of ignoring the problem, but there is a huge difference between ignoring problems and focussing in on the strengths and resources that will solve them.
In a better world, there would be access to emergency accommodation
for this lady and her daughter whilst they look for housing, and for everyone
who needs it. In an even more perfect world there would be an end to
homelessness. It is our job to make this a reality and we must continue to fight for this; but in the meantime we do our
consumers a disservice by wasting their precious time apologising for resources
we don’t have when what we can offer, right now, by being strengths based is hope.
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*I will blog later in the week about some key differences
between the US and UK homelessness systems, particularly US family
homelessness.
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