Empowering destitute people towards transforming communities

Formal and informal engagement of destitute people

Destitute people seldom become involved in empowerment efforts on their own initiative, simply because they do not enjoy access to such initiative, or the power to drive these initiatives. This is where helpers come in: they facilitate, advocate and catalyze the process of transformation so that destitute people can become empowered. This facilitation, advocacy and catalysis is called “engagement” in the model.
Engagement may be both informal and formal. Informal engagement should probably always come first. This is engagement where the “whole community of God”, meaning specifically non-professional Christians and members of the church, becomes involved in missions with the destitute. They reach out and befriend destitute people with God’s love (in whatever way. In this way trust develops, relationships are built, hope is instilled, and destitute people become more open to being empowered.
Formal engagement refers to the actions and efforts carried out by specialized professionals with respect to empowering the destitute. These can include organizations, specialist individuals such as social workers or medical professionals, or counsellors. Often people will be referred to this kind of help, or they will be “taken by the hand” through informal engagement into more specialized empowerment agencies, which we shall term formal.

7. Within the sphere of “God at work with people”

Lastly, all the above occurs within the sphere of “God at work with people”, so that we often find God already there when we engage the destitute. In this regard we should remember clearly that we are involved in the Missio Dei, when we engage in missions with the destitute, it is and remains God’s missions. Consequently we discover SHALOM with the destitute, we do not take it to them, and are also reminded that we are instruments of God’s work.

8. Naming the model

In naming the model, I try to reflect all the perspectives and aspects discussed previously. Therefore I term it: “Missions with the destitute: A continuum of empowering care”. The complete model may be illustrated as follows:

Missions with the destitute: A continuum of empowering care
God at work with people

2. Conclusion

No model is perfect, but a good model can often accord structure to otherwise chaotic and haphazard efforts to make a difference. This model is a framework for missions with the destitute; it is not a recipe or programme, and should not be treated as such.
The question which now arises regarding the strategies that can be used to flesh out the framework of this model is answered in the following chapters.

Chapter 6

Missions with the Destitute from the Inside-out

The question often asked among people working with the destitute is: “Why don’t they want to change?” This is a perceived reality, usually one that is construed as “unwillingness” to change, and such seeming “unwillingness” is often dealt with rather harshly by helpers. However, it would seem that it is a perception based on wrong assumptions – for it is mostly not true that destitute people do not want to change. This chapter discusses issues such as internal motivation and helping people become stronger on the inside, so that they will be internally empowered to face external problems, or to grow towards SHALOM.
Missions with the destitute from the inside-out focus on the internal empowerment of individual destitute people, and the processes involved in or linked to this internal empowerment. This implies approaches that will enable helpers to empower destitute people to become whole, grow, change and develop on the inside, so that they will become self-motivated to change their own lives on the outside (inside-out).
Whereas “inside-out” missions with the destitute focus on approaches that promote internal motivation (growth, wholeness, development, change) in individual destitute people, “outside-in” missions (chapter 7) concentrate more on approaches that improve the systems and circumstances outside of the direct control of destitute people that make them, or keep them, destitute. As noted earlier, one should bear in mind that even though we make the distinction between “inside-out” and “outside-in” missions, there is a strong overlap and dynamic interaction between the two.

1Introduction

How do we help destitute people become stronger on the inside in a way that will empower them to grow so that they can realize their own dreams? How do we assist them to change in their attitudes, choices, beliefs and motivation without resorting to wrongful coercion? How do we aid them to experience SHALOM as an inner well-being that will facilitate renewed outward behaviour? What strategies and principles can helpers use? These are complex issues, and there are no easy answers.
When doing missions with the destitute from the inside out, a number of issues and principles come into play, such as:

• 
  Reaching out and engaging destitute people in a way that “connects” us to them, so that helpers can start to play a helpful role in people’s lives.
  
• 
  Understanding what motivates people, and then empowering them to become self-motivated to change.
  
• 
  Comprehending how to empower destitute people to become “whole” again on the inside (and then learn to stay whole).
  
• 
  Understanding the role of “beliefs” and “limiting beliefs” in the lives of people, so that destitute people can be challenged towards, and empowered through, the fostering of new beliefs.
  
• 
  How to foster helpers’ competencies in order to promote and facilitate empowering “inside-out” missions.