The walls are coming down.

An update on my work at Deborah's Place:

Yesterday felt very productive. I spent quite a bit of time with a new woman who had never been to DP before. She has been homeless, staying with friends and family, for 3 years. She left her old apartment at the peak of a nervous breakdown and hasn't been able to find stable housing since. There were tears in her eyes during our entire meeting. I helped her apply for food stamps, gave her some canned food and bathing supplies, told her she's welcome back any time, and when she was ready to go she hugged me hard.

It's strange (or really, not strange but notable, maybe sad) that new women tend to assume we require something of them - like they are signing something away and now they must report to us. I'm regularly asked, after I do an intake with a woman and get to know her a little, whether she will have to "report back." "Do I have to come back tomorrow?" some ask. My response is always, "If you want to." I realize, of course, that the lack of this sort of structure is what makes this program work. It's also what makes my job both extremely frustrating (many women who come in to the LC for the first time don't return) and extremely rewarding (when one does return for a second time, my stomach leaps a little. She came back because she made a decision to do so).

I've learned more than I can begin to pinpoint, because it spans from one end of the social work spectrum to the other. Today I've seen 4 women. One needed her LINK card replaced, one needed help finding subsidized housing (we called at least 10 units in an attempt to find an open waiting list, without much luck), one needed fare cards, and one just needed to cry. I also filled out quarterly reports for all the women I've met with since I started, organized my files, played cards with a woman (why this PCA tenant likes Gin Rummy so much is beyond me), and somehow managed to scarf lunch mid-jewelry-making group. And the day's not over. My desk is a mess. I'm trying not to feel terribly frustrated about how difficult it is to find housing in this city. I take a lot of deep breaths.

Comments

[Jonathan Timm]

It's interesting to see that structure and lack of structure can be either a help or a hinderance depending on the setting, and of course on myriad other things. You've expressed more than once that the lack of rigid structure at Deborah's Place is part of what helps it function. Here in Peru, I've experienced the opposite. The community center in which I work offers classes in English and computers, among other things, but the classes aren't scheduled rigidly and there's no sign up process or entrance fee. A problem that occurs, in part I think because of this lack of structure, is that students will just stop showing up. I only have two students, and it's looking like one of them just dropped. I know people who teach English to just 3 students, and sometimes one. So it's insightful for me to hear that in other settings, lack of structure can be essential. I'd love to see you write more about how it does so.

[Taylor Buck]

Jonathan -- That's what I'm planning to write my thesis on...how the seemingly contradictory lack of structure is imperative to DP's fuctionality and success, and what this means for activism. Or something along those lines. So, you'll be hearing plenty more about it from Yours Truly, promise.

[Taylor Buck]

Another thought: it's not necessarily lack of structure that I'm interested in, or that is necessary for Deborah's Place, though that is a by-product of our praxis, I suppose. But I think you can still have structure, rules and requirements without imposing a specific ideology or "Truth."

[Jonathan Timm]

Yeah, I guess I'm not so much worried about imposing ideologies or truth, but in an organization like Deborah's Place, what is the most helpful to people. Problems that tend to come from lack of structure are things like inconsistent follow-through from clients that ultimately wastes case-managers' time. Or a bunch of other things could be prolematic because of the lack of rigid structure, just on functional levels. I'm not skeptical that the fluidity of Deborah's Place serves it well, I'm just interested in why it seems to work so well. Keep up the kickin ass.