Empowering destitute people towards transforming communities

8.4Greater competency for all helpers engaging the destitute

Consequently a combination of strong values, learned skills and conscious testing of their own personal biases that are constantly fostered should improve helpers’ competencies considerably. Of course, one would expect a greater measure of learned skills and adherence to values among professionals engaging the destitute, but the “whole people of God” also need to grow in competency when it comes to missions with the destitute. Helpers engaging “haphazardly” in missions with the destitute, without realizing the complexity and challenges of the issues they will be confronted with, will soon be discouraged, or may even (in their ignorance) cause damage to already damaged people.

9Conclusion

Missions with the destitute from the inside-out utilize strategies that empower destitute people internally, so that they will become stronger and be able to handle external challenges better. Such missions will reach out to individual destitute people, with the idea of “connecting” (forming trusting relationships), in order that helpers can consequently engage the destitute in ways that empower them to become non-destitute, or to grow in SHALOM. However, these missions should not coerce change, but should, rather, empower people to become self-motivated to change. Such missions will understand personal brokenness in destitute people, and will attempt to facilitate “healing” of such brokenness in non-directive ways. Part of the purpose of missions with the destitute is therefore to understand 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.
Lastly, meaningful missions with the destitute (that do not harm people) call for the fostering of helpers’ competencies in order to promote and facilitate empowering “inside-out” missions.

Chapter 7

Missions with the Destitute from the Outside-in

This chapter explores strategies and interventions that should empower destitute people by creating an external environment or situation that could enable them to grow, change, develop and become whole as they choose to. Missions with the destitute from the “outside-in” deals with issues mostly outside of the direct control of destitute people, therefore “external” to them: such as access to housing, or clinical services, or access to empowering communities, or advocating social justice and a number of other issues. These issues are sometimes also called “structural” or “societal factors” contributing to destitution.

1Introduction

Richardson & Earle (2006:31), in discussing motivation, make it clear that “our inner motivation is greatly influenced by forces in our external social environment”. This is very true of destitution.
The words of a service provider spell out the plight of the destitute (in terms of external issues and forces at work) very effectively:

She never in her life could save that kind of money that she needs to get back on her feet, and she has no skills to be able to market herself to be able to make more money in that sort of situation. So what happens is that she is stuck in that cycle until somebody intervenes with authority, like the way we are trying to get help with suitable housing that will be subsidized. Unless somebody steps in to do that she’s always going to be in that sort of place where she is cycling around and that doesn’t change her desire, it doesn’t change what she wants. She dreams of the same things all of the rest of us dream, which is going some place in the evening and being able to get into a warm bed or to a place where the rain is not going to hit you on the head; or where somebody is not going to rape you because you are outside, or any of the other things that she has to deal with having to live outside. It makes perfect sense to me when I think of the scenario how easily she could become discouraged. It makes sense to me that the woman goes out and does drugs (Meschede, 2004:3).

Regarding destitution, it is nearly impossible to discover exact and specific answers for every single “external” factor contributing to this state, firstly because of the variety of factors involved, and secondly because of the dynamically interactive nature of all the factors (both internal and external) that are involved. Therefore this chapter focuses on interventions and strategies that could empower destitute people by creating an external environment or situation that will enable them to grow, change, develop and become whole as they choose to.
I appreciate the way in which CHAM describe its activities as an organization on the front page of its website (CHAM2006): it clearly depicts an approach to missions that is faith-based, that integrates sharing faith and meeting social needs, and that engages both internal and external issues contributing to destitution:

CHAM's work consists of three parts: service, ministry and advocacy. These aspects of CHAM are built around the Gospel Principles of love, forgiveness, justice, compassion and repentance. Through CHAM’s understanding of, and adherence to all the aspects of Jesus’ ministry, CHAM seeks the eradication of all forms of injustice and oppression and ultimately seeks the full presence of the Kingdom of God. Our ministry is structured to empower the powerless, give a voice to the voiceless, and has room for all people from all faith backgrounds to join together in creating equality, justice and hope. CHAM praises, preaches, teaches, prays, empowers, nurtures and heals; at the same time we march, demonstrate, strategize, advocate, unite, outreach and proclaim justice--these are all interwoven in the full Gospel that Jesus taught. CHAM knows that with God all things are possible and we see miracles happen everyday because CHAM "walks by faith, not by sight."

It would seem that missions from the outside-in can be divided roughly into two categories, namely (1) social services and (2) community development approaches. However, one should be aware that these two categories overlap.
Clinical services are understood to denote social services in their many forms. In this regard such services will operate from “outside” to help people become physically healthy and able to access housing etc., in this way reconnecting them to communities of care. These communities may display many faces, but they will be social places that care for people in some way, therefore improving their lives.
Community development approaches would then focus more on the strengthening of communities, so that these communities would truly be able to empower their members not to be destitute, but to grow towards SHALOM.
Even though outside-in missions are divided into two categories, there is an obvious overlap between these two categories, where the one makes possible the other. Clinical services, for instance, will often strive to reconnect people to communities, while a community of care will in turn improve access to various clinical services.
Following in the footsteps of pioneer ministry organizations such as CHAM, and other helpers like this body, missions from the “outside-in” can be fleshed out along the lines of clinical services and community development.