Empowering destitute people towards transforming communities

8.2Building competency on learned skills

Erickson and Page (1998:3), drawing from other authors, identify certain principles that must become learned skills which will enable helpers to improve their own competencies as helpers. These skills are critical because successful engagement will largely be determined by the relationship between clients and helpers. While they apply more to formal engagement with the destitute by professional helpers, and not as much to informal engagement by laypersons (the “whole people of God”), these skills should apply to any helper wanting to do missions with the destitute. They include:

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  Good judgment, intuition and street sense: this includes safety for themselves and the client – being observant and vigilant, as well as using good common sense. Strategies include going out with a partner, avoiding closed, remote or dangerous areas, developing a relationship with local police (Winarski, 1998), carrying a cellular phone, dressing appropriately, and assessing situations before acting.
  
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  Non-judgmental attitude (ICH, 1991): regardless of the worker's personal beliefs, no behaviour on the part of the client is morally judged.
  
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  Being a team player: helpers must know when to ask for help, from receiving backup on the streets to obtaining a second opinion in clinical assessments. Outreach staff must display a strong commitment to the "team" approach to service delivery (Axelroad, 1987; Wobido et al., 1990).
  
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  Flexibility (Rosnow, 1988; ICH, 1991): Outreach helpers are flexible in reassessing daily work priorities, in setting work schedules, in the treatment planning process (Morse, 1987), and in its content.
  
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  Realistic expectations: Helpers have an "expectation of non-results." They understand that they will not be able to "cure" or "save" clients (Axelroad, 1987; ICH, 1991), yet at the same time must continue to persevere.
  
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  Commitment: helpers should be both consistent and persistent in their dealings with clients (Axelroad, 1987; Wobido et al, 1990). They do what they say they are going to do and only make promises they can keep. They are in it "for the long haul".
  
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  Less is more. At the outset of intervention, there is less application of intensive and costly treatment, less professional distancing, less rigidity, less intrusiveness, and less directiveness (Rosnow, 1988). Services offered are purely voluntary (Cohen, 1989).
  
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  Altruism: Staff find rewards in doing outreach work, such as a spiritual commitment to helping others, furthering an academic interest, or simply enjoying the process of working with individuals (Axelroad, 1987).
  
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  Sense of humour: the ability to use humour at appropriate times, as well as maintaining a sense of humour during difficult times, is essential.
  
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  Creativity and resourcefulness are strengths that helpers tap into daily.
  
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  Cultural competency: Helpers demonstrate competence across ethnicity, gender, transgender, lifestyle, and age spectrums.
  
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  Resilience: Helpers are resilient and patient in a work environment marked by high turnover, difficulty in tracking clients (McQuistion, et al., 1996), high stress, lack of resources, and lack of immediate improvement in the clients they serve. Effective helpers are able to continue working despite the difficulties endured by their clients, without personalizing them, meaning without taking these difficulties personally.
  

8.3Improving competency by dealing with biases

All helpers display biases and hold viewpoints. As Meyers (1999:58) puts it: “We view the poor from a point of view, as Christians, as development professionals, as urban folk, in terms of our personalities, and in terms of the culture from which we come”. Against this background, he advocates that “we need to make our assumptions more explicit, and to ask God’s help to see the poor and the circumstances of the poor more truly”.

According to Samuel (1995:153) helpers are “shaped by a particular understanding of progress, health, modern education, family life, democracy, participation, decision making, market reality, economic principles and practices”. In this respect Chambers (1997:78-83) identifies four particular areas of concern with respect to helpers’ biases, especially among specialized professional helpers engaging the destitute:

8.3.1Conditioning

We are all conditioned human beings; the temptation is to transfer our view of how things work and what will make things better onto others (especially when we are specialized professionals who have studied, and therefore “know how it works”). Needless to say, these kinds of temptations should consciously be guarded against.

8.3.2The desire to dominate

Most people exhibit a desire (at least to a degree) to feel superior and dominate over others. This behaviour may form part of their personality as well as their culture. The facts that helpers can read, express themselves clearly when speaking, can write, can arrive in a car or on a motorcycle, ask for a meeting with important people and then be granted it, all indicate a position of power and privilege (as opposed to the destitute), that helpers often use to unwittingly dominate.

8.3.3Distance

Helpers often operate “from a distance”, geographically and psychologically. When we are with the poor, we are “in the field”, but our offices are usually somewhere else, where we have access to everything we need to perform the task. In addition, the differences in language, customs, food and ways of problem solving all serve to create distance.

8.3.4Denial

When the real world of the poor conflicts with who we are or how we are trained or what we believe, the reaction is often denial. We simply reframe or change the experience or our understanding to fit into our own frameworks. Hence helpers remain untroubled and unchanged, leaving the poor to adapt to them.