Therapeutic Incarceration
A dozen times in the past few weeks I have found myself speaking about therapeutic incarceration. It has nothing to do with jails or prisons. It is about how some homeless and housing service providers treat their clients. I didn’t coin the term (see The Therapeutic Incarceration of Homeless Families Naomi Gerstel, Cynthia J. Bogard, J. Jeff McConnell and Michael Schwartz Social Service Review Vol. 70, No. 4 (Dec., 1996), pp. 543-572) though I wish I had. And it sounds like something I would say.
When I use the term, I am talking about those non-profit (and sometimes government) programs that go out of their way to hold onto the households that they serve. They smother them with service plans more oriented on trying to heal or fix people that trying to house and support them regardless of their imperfections. They keep them in life skills programming, for example, refusing to talk about housing options until they have demonstrated success in the program. Or they have them stay in a compliance-based a transitional housing model. Or they keep providing case management services to them years from when they first encountered them, unfortunately (naively?), thinking that their supports are necessary to keep them housed.
News flash – and it can suck to hear – that ain’t what the job is supposed to be.
When it is more about our desire to hold onto people then it is wrong.
When we think we can intervene to prevent any mistakes from happening, then it is wrong. (Aren’t mistakes a learning opportunity? Don’t we all make them?)
When a case manager doesn’t want someone to “graduate” (I hate that term, but I don’t have a better one, so it will do for now) from their program, what does that say about their orientation towards helping people achieve greater independence over time? (We shouldn’t be paying for “friends for life” programs.)
When anybody suggests that allowing people to fully make their own decisions is a set up for failure, it is wrong.
When dependent awareness is worn as a badge of courage rather than focusing attention on how we can get people to a place where they are fully integrated with other community services and can be interdependent, it is wrong.
I can hear some critics now. What about the young mom without parenting skills? What about the youth that has run away from home? What about the person with mental illness? What about the person who has experienced repeated institutionalization in hospital, mental health facility and/or prison?
A mistake is just another way of doing things. Sure, it comes with consequences. But we have all made mistakes, right? Isn’t that an essential aspect of free will?
Are you going to be in the young mom’s life until her child is 18? No. Provide a good foundation and let her make mistakes.
Are you going to stay in the youth’s life until their synaptic firing and wiring is advanced enough that they make decisions like a full-fledged adult? No. And, by the way, grown-ups make poor decisions too.
Do we really think every person with mental illness requires a substitute decision maker? Have you never heard of the concept of recovery? Oh, and allow me to introduce you to lingo we people with a mental illness use in our circles – nothing about us without us.
And I could go on.
If anybody suggests that a client surrenders their free will in order to engage with a homeless and housing service program, then it is time to take away all of their funding and focus our investment on those programs and services that would rather see homeless individuals and families empowered. Keeping homeless individuals and families stuck “in the system” is an indictment on us all. People attached to an organization years later isn’t a sign that the organization is doing a good job – it is, in fact, the exact opposite.
So, let us promote greater independence. Let us support people in re-integrating with community. Let us realize that the true value of our work is in realizing that it is not about us – it is about the people that we serve. Let’s stop imprisoning human potential.
The “Yes, buts…”
“I agree with prioritizing clients being a better practice than first come first, served, but I think our staff will have too hard of a time with that.”
“I agree with focusing on housing stability before launching into a complete case plan, but our clients really need longer case management before they are ready to be housed.”
“I agree with the idea of working with a smaller group of people really intensely to solve their homelessness, but our funders want to see high numbers of people we interact with.”
“I agree that we should know the difference our program makes in people’s lives, but we don’t have the time nor are we required by our funders to track those types of changes.”
“I agree that we should spend time talking about how to better work like a system, but our CoC thinks they already do that really well.”
“I agree that we need to have an assessment tool, but youth are too different from other populations to be assessed.”
“I agree that publicly reporting how we are doing relative to targets would be helpful, but our staff would freak out.”
“I agree that we should offer person-centred services, but there are some administrative things that we are required to do that makes that impossible.”
“I agree that we should be non-judgmental and meet people where they are at, but people need to be sober for at least 7 days before they can really make a decision about housing.”
“I agree that providing supports to people in their homes is really needed in our community, but our agency has a policy that staff can’t leave the office because of worker safety.”
“I agree we should have centralized intake and common assessment to get the right person to the right program, but we need to keep our shelter beds full and our programs maxed out so that we get paid.”
“I agree that targeting prevention resources are difficult, if not impossible, but we feel it is important to provide a safety net to anybody that comes through our door…until we run out of money.”
“I agree that our staff can use more training, but we’d rather spend all of the money we get on direct client costs.”
And I could go on. All of these are examples of things I have jotted down as I have heard them over the past few weeks. Needless to say, there is an epidemic of “yes, but” mentality that can impede our ability to make lasting, effective change.
The “yes, but” response is interesting because people tend to accept the premise of the argument. They tend to agree with the evidence as presented to them. They tend to nod when data is used to highlight when/how/why something different may be considered. It is the action that is required as a result of the evidence that they resist. And the resistance is grounded in a range of rationale like organizational history, what is felt to be an imposed requirement by funders (which can be real), values, perception of client needs (regardless of evidence), fear of staff resistance – and so on.
The “yes, but” is a good case study in how people and organizations don’t always resist change (they agree that a future desired state may be better); they resist transitions (come up with a reason not to move to the desired state).
When the forum is appropriate, people that have attended my seminars or workshops know that the question I follow with is “But…what?” When there is a well-founded reason to consider a practice different than what we are doing, I like organizations and people to embrace the discussion of how we get from the current state to the desired future state. I am not so naïve to think it happens overnight. People may have feelings hurt. Organizations can be in a state of flux while they work through the change. Leaders (not just managers) have to grab the gauntlet and manage the risk and structure in moving forward. Champions are often needed. Staff have to be supported as they weather the transition.
Next time your organization is grappling with making a move that you have the evidence to believe is the right direction and find yourselves confronted with the “yes, but”, try one or more of the following:
Respectfully and calmly inquire “but what?” to figure out what is at the core of the resistance. Another way to reframe this is to use “yes…and” rather than “yes, but”.
Encourage people to talk about their values. It can often be assumed that people working in the same organization share the same values and perspectives on issues. That is not always the case. Knowing those differences helps with navigating different feelings and perspectives on the issue at hand.
Continue to use evidence – data points and evaluated examples – that support the change that is being considered. Proof that something may be a better way of doing work is better than emotional anecdotes.
Ask people to join you in having a solution-focused approach. That is to say, have people engage in dialogue about all that is required to make something work or make a particular change rather than noting just the barriers to moving forward.
When other people or organizations (like funders) are seen to be as the only thing stopping you from achieving the direction you want to go, invite them to engage with you in moving forward. Not all funders are connected enough to day to day realities that they understand well enough that their good intentions may not completely jive with good operational practice
Promote a culture of your peers that agrees that they will deliberately try to be creative first and critical second when confronted with new ideas or innovative approaches to service that are different than current practice.
Acknowledge that working through change to a new desired state of operation is rarely 100% correct. If we accept a “process” approach to working towards improvement, then we can learn and grow while we reflect and try.
Think about the end users of your services while you discern the value of making the change happen.
Create a simple evaluation framework to compare performance from the current way of delivering service to the new way that service is being tried.
The “yes, buts” can kill change and smother attempts at innovation. Our job is not to maintain the status quo at all costs. Our job is to focus on a hopeful new reality where the mission of ending homelessness is achieved. When there are compelling reasons to change or try service delivery differently, it is in the best interests of the people that we serve to demonstrate we are integrating that knowledge into practice.
“We are Not Venture Capitalists”
This is a quote written on a white board in the office of a Continuum of Care that I am doing some work with. I saw it on a recent visit and loved it. In some way, shape or form I think all of us that have worked as a funder in our career have had similar experiences with people calling out of the blue looking for money to open a shelter or start an outreach program or begin a meal program or build housing or start a drop-in or something similar. When I was a funder working in government it would seem that once or more per month I’d get a call or email from some organization or person I had never heard of seeking funds for a housing or homeless program.
I don’t know enough about the people who make these calls out of the blue to form a comprehensive opinion, but for the sake of argument, let us assume that they are well-intentioned and mean well, but generally without extensive (or any) experience in delivering homeless and housing services.
I think the fact that calls are received seemingly out of nowhere by people and organizations that have no real experience in receiving funds or delivering programs says a lot about service provision to people that experience homelessness. Allow me to make five very general observations about what this may mean:
The “Outside World” doesn’t see what is happening in homeless and housing service delivery as a professional service delivery system, methodically planned and strategically funded.
Funding is not promoted in the public eye as competitive, strategic investment.
The general public thinks anybody can do this work.
Housing as the solution to homelessness has not been promoted enough – most of the time fund-seekers are looking to operate emergency services.
Ending homelessness is a business; but too often it is still seen as a charitable response.
What can be done about it? Well, I am not so naïve to think the calls out of the blue will stop completely. There will continue to be well-intentioned people seeking money to assist with their campaign to – most often – feed, shelter or clothe homeless people. But we can improve our messaging on what is happening in our community. Some suggestions:
Link and plaster references to your 10 Year Plan, its intent and achievements in just about every document and medium that you have at your disposal (assuming the Plan is up to date and being put into action). Anybody who calls out of the blue should be asked how what he/she is aiming to have funded is aligned with the local Plan to End Homelessness.
Talk about “strategic investment in ending homelessness” not just funding to homeless programs. Ask the person who calls out of the blue how what they are requesting aligns with the other “x” thousands/millions of dollars in investment in the system already and how any contribution to them will help leverage additional success.
Use words like “professional” to describe the types of services being delivered to people that are homeless. Ask the person who calls about their experience, expertise and education. Ask them what they think the main currents of thought and practice are in homeless service delivery and how what they want to do contributes to proven practices to end homelessness.
Housing. Housing. Housing. If the conversation isn’t about housing as the solution in all that you do you are ceding ground to those that think emergency responses are the answer to homelessness. It’s okay to ask people that call you out of the blue how what they want to do helps people achieve and become stable in housing. This doesn’t mean, say, that your community is anti-shelter. But let’s assume they want to open another one…ask them why they think another shelter is needed and how that shelter will help people move successfully into housing.
Use data appropriately on websites, newsletters, press releases, etc to speak about progress relative to targets…this is the parlance of business…the desire to measure results. Consider asking the caller what their business plan is to optimize the likelihood for success, the measures they think they would need to capture in service delivery and their approach to evaluating what they are doing to continuously improve their response.
All of these questions are also things you can put into an annual funding request for proposals; or if you are a service agency, areas that you can address in your funding submission even if your funders did not ask for it. These are examples of five areas where our ability to demonstrate excellence in service delivery goes a long way to distance the work of ending homelessness as just another hand-out. The “hand-out” is the furthest thing from the work done the past couple of decades to have solution-focused interventions pin-pointed at the need to invest in ending homelessness.
Home Making
In the effort to end homelessness, it has been my experience – generally speaking – that getting chronically homeless people into housing is the easy part. Providing the supports to help them stay there is the harder part. Here are a few tips that frontline workers can consider when supporting people in their apartment unit to help with the transition of a blank apartment into a place that feels like home.
Positive reinforce the housing choice.
On the day of move in, meet the person moving in at least one hour before you are supposed to meet the superintendent for getting the keys and moving in. One, this will reduce the likelihood of the person disappearing. Two, if you are even earlier than you said you would be when you show up at the encampment of shelter, you can tell the person that you are early because you are so excited about them moving in. Before they set foot at the building, take the time to engage in positive reinforcement. Let the genuinely know that you think this is a great step for them. Let’s say the apartment is downtown and that was one of the most important criteria in the housing search, reinforce how amazing it is that you were able to find a place that was close to downtown. Let’s say they wanted a smaller place so that it would be easier to clean, before you set foot in the unit talk about how glad you are that they found a smaller place so that it is easier to clean.
If we are sincere in our enthusiasm it is infectious. Our infectiousness will positively reinforce the housing choice that has been made.
Arrange furniture for the day of move in.
If you leave the apartment unit blank looking, it is going to feel more like a prison cell or place where they may have squatted than a place to call home.
Whether your organization has a budget to purchase new furniture or you rely on some great social purpose enterprises (I think of the likes of FIND in Edmonton), make sure that you arrange for the furniture delivery on the day of move-in.
A lot can be said for the new tenant having a say in the furniture that goes into their unit rather than them just being handed furniture that they had no say in. People who have a say in the couch, bed, coffee tables, etc are much more likely to take care of them long term.
While I have seen many a chronically homeless person be overcome with emotions on the day of move in when they get their keys, I have seen more actually break down and weep with joy when the furniture that they picked out arrives and they have a say in where it is set up in their place. Powerful.
Ensure basic needs are in place.
Sometimes this can be achieved as part of the furniture organization, but it is absolutely critical. On the day of move in, people need to have basic needs like toiletries, plates, linens, toilet paper, light bulbs, pots, cleaning supplies, basic spices, etc. If the basics aren’t in place, the individual will have to go elsewhere to have their basic needs met, which will make the place feel less like home.
In some communities I have seen church groups and high school students pull together “welcome home” kits that can be given to the person on the day of move in. It is one less thing to worry about, doesn’t take away from whatever meager income supports they may have, and ensures that the basics are taken care of.
Bring three picture frames.
If you go to a discount or dollar store you can pick up a few picture frames really inexpensively. Give them to the person on the day of move in as a moving in present. Tell them to fill each picture frame with something or someone that is important to them and display them in their apartment.
I have been amazed over the years at how many clients have taken this task seriously and used it to create a focal point in their new apartment. Yes, photographs are common for the frames, but I have also seen tenants create new artwork, put poetry or biblical quotes, press leaves and flowers, put in a small mirror, etc within the picture frames.
Like most of us, we decorate our homes with those things that we enjoy…that represent us…that bring joy to our lives. The picture frames help with this journey.
Bake cookies on the next visit.
A bit schmaltzy, but I think nothing says home like the scent of fresh baked cookies. Plus the time that the cookies are baking provides you the opportunity for engaged discussion with your client. And, if you get an inexpensive cookie sheet it is one more thing they have for their kitchen for cooking in the future.
As an approach to creating bookends, I have also been known to encourage cookie making when the support relationship hits significant milestones or the individual is ready to move on from the program.
Bring a small plant one week after move in.
One of the things I love about Ikea and similar stores is that you can get some indoor plants for super-duper cheap. It doesn’t break the bank to give a newly housed person a $1 plant. It is a good home-making gift.
A few things that I have seen that come out of having a plant – the client talks to their plant; the client cares for the plant; the client is exposed to sunlight because the plant is in a windowsill. I have heard many stories of plants from childhood.
Go grocery shopping within the first week together and make a stew or chili.
A quick way to assess the skill level in budgeting and shopping while also promoting food security is to go grocery shopping. This is usually a longer visit where you can get to know the client better. It allows you to interact with the client in a range of settings. You also get a sense of whether there are any things missing in the basic supplies provided.
Yes, stews and chilis are simple meals. But they are also quite healthy and cost effective. Plus, freezing single portions helps with budgeting food and resources throughout the month. I also think a well stocked freezer is a sign of a place being lived in, and removes worries that clients are going hungry for no reason.
Get a dry erase marker.
Credit where credit is due, this one comes from my buddy Kathy who is one of the most creative case managers I have ever met who has since gone on to become a program supervisor of a Permanent Supportive Housing building.
With the dry erase marker you can write reminders on the fridge (assuming it is one of those glossy white ones…practice in a discrete place first). Things like next home visits, doctor visits, important phone numbers, etc can all be written write on the fridge in one place. Genius.
Give them a calendar.
I have seen some agencies create calendars of their clients with important community phone numbers, but you don’t need to get that creative. Regardless of when the person moves in throughout the year, make sure they have a calendar. In one place in the apartment they can keep track of all appointments, the date, etc. It isn’t a bad idea to put a pen or pencil on a string and attach it to the calendar.
Create a personal guest policy.
I created this one early on in my career. I found I was frustrated if a superintendent or landlord tried to lay out the rules for visitors that were quickly broken and an eviction seemed imminent. Me telling people the rules also seemed to fly in the face of client-centred strategies that I really believed in.
So, very soon after move in I asked clients to create their personal guest policy. This was the client putting into their own words when they thought it would be ideal for them to have guests over, what they thought would be acceptable activities when guests were over, if there were any guests that they did not want over under certain conditions, and what actions they would take if the guest policy wasn’t followed.
The guest policy was never 100% successful, but it did offer something tangible to work off of when there were issues with guests. I could ask questions like “So what part of your guest policy do you think needs to be reconsidered or changed in light of…”
Some clients over the years posted their guest policy in a very visible place that others could see when they came to visit. Cool idea.
Roll up your sleeves to teach skills.
It is naïve to think all chronically homeless people we serve have all of the skills necessary to maintain housing; while at the same time it is unfortunate that some housing workers think they have no skills.
We need to start from positions of strength, and it is really only in spending time with our clients that we fully appreciate what they are capable and incapable of. It is my contention that we need to be willing to roll up our sleeves and actively engage in teaching these skills. Being a successful housing worker means that we have to be prepared to do laundry with people, clean up an apartment with people, scrub showers and toilets with people, go grocery shopping with people, etc. There is generally no other support in the community ready to do those things. Plus, if we see our role as promoting stability in housing first and foremost, we are on the front lines of making that skill development possible. We do with people, not for people, and over time see the skills transfer to the client in their pathway to greater self-sufficiency.
Bring some putty that can be used for hanging posters, pictures, etc.
You don’t want to put a bunch of holes in the apartment walls and the putty is rather inexpensive. If you give the putty to the person on or shortly after the day of move in and encourage them to put things up on their walls, it can take very little time to see the place transform into a decorative space. Whether it is newspaper clippings, artwork, posters, baseball cards or whatever, the individual is transforming the wall space into their own home without damaging the apartment. Plus, as because we want people to be engaged in meaningful daily activities, this type of opportunity is a great way to have people engaged in the activities of home making.
Conduct home visits on time for the length of time you said you would in the early weeks.
The last tip is to conduct home visits more frequently and usually for a greater length of time shortly after a person has moved into their apartment. This helps reinforce in the home making process that you have a vested interest in their success. It also lets you quickly catch any issues that may compromise wellness in housing in the early days. Adjusting strategy then can be critical for long term success.
It is my contention – and affirmed by people that I have supported in making the transition from chronic homelessness to housing – that the more an apartment feels like home the less the likelihood of damage to the apartment and the greater the likelihood that the person/family will stay there long term and be satisfied with housing. It also reinforces the need to focus on housing choices rather than housing placements, which are also proven to result in better long-term housing outcomes.
If you have great ideas on how to help create home, put them in the comments section of the blog below so that others can read them and borrow from your wisdom.
You Are Awesome – The Making of a Video Tribute
On July 5, 2012 we released a video tribute to all those housing workers that are working tirelessly to end homelessness. The making of the tribute is the focus of this blog and a lesson in how leveraging social networks can help define the message.
Since January I have been taking 5-10 second clips of video on my iPhone in various locations throughout North America. Anytime I saw a word or phrase or image that I liked, I recorded it. I didn’t know how it would possibly be used. I just kept shooting. I ended up with over an hour of material. That’s a lot when you consider that each clip is very short.
About a month ago, I started the experimental phase of the project. I selected three people in various areas of North America that were friends of mine on Facebook. I asked each one, using only social media, to find out which phrases they had heard me say in speeches I had given in their community really resonated with people in their social network. A couple of points here: none of the “friends” I asked via Facebook were close friends in the more conventional sense; and, I knew full well that not everyone in their social network would have heard me speak. Anyway, through this process the text phrases that appear in the video were selected. The only thing I added was the “You are awesome” tag at the end of each one.
I record many of the speeches that I give as part of keynotes or training or lectures or briefings to elected officials. I do this so that I can learn how to make my public presentations better. This is an important back-story for the next part of the exercise. Sending a direct message to 7 other friends on Facebook, I asked them to work their friend list to isolate parts of speeches that they have heard me give that they thought were particularly impactful. I then assembled audio clips from their feedback. Because I had given more than one speech in some of these communities, there are actually pieces of 9 different speeches included in the video. Some parts of those speeches are in the foreground. However, if you listen really closely to the mix (especially with headphones on) you are hear parts of other speeches in the background.
The last piece of the spoken word component was for me to send a message out on Facebook to everyone on my friend list, and a note on Twitter, asking people to audio record “You are awesome” in any way that they wanted to and to email it to me. I also asked people to have people in their family do it as well if they wanted to do so. Almost 10% of everyone on my friend list did so. Every single one of these is in the final compilation. Some are louder than others. Some are more frequent than others. But all of them are there. Who knows, maybe the quieter ones have a subliminal power?
I set myself a five minute limit for the tribute. The first thing I did was assemble the video images and text. If someone paid no attention to the audio, I still wanted the video to have its own key messages. The second thing I did was organize the sequence of the audio clips so that the messages in the foreground would sound like one continuous speech.
Feeling something was missing, I took some clips from an interview I did with a formerly homeless gentleman last year. I liked all of the background noise in the interview. I thought his eyes and other facial expressions were very emotive. The clips with him became the inspiration for the music composition.
Then I went about composing the music for the video. This was the most time consuming part of the project. In some ways it was like scoring a film…using music to help drive the emotional attributes of the video images. In some ways it was like putting together a music video…it had to work as a stand-alone piece of music. The toughest part was having a beat to work as a backbone, in line with the tempo of the speech pattern, and one that would “drive” people through the journey of the video.
And then I finally worked the “You are awesome” word messages into the mix at various times as part of the final editing process.
The whole video, audio and editing was completed in my “spare” time – late at night or on airplanes when I was too tired to read or write reports. Other than the music and “You are awesome” phrases, the whole video was created using existing materials that were put together in a new way. It was social media that assembled the crowd of people that had input on the phrases and text that resonated most with them in different communities. What I liked about this was that it provided a strong voice to how others have interpreted our work and messages rather than me providing solely a self-assessment. Some of the content recommended, honestly, is different than what I expected. For that I am grateful.
Once the video was posted on YouTube, I let people know via Facebook (personal page and corporate page) and Twitter. The fascinating – and unexpected part – in the first couple of days is that people in housing and homeless organizations started dedicating it to their staff or to each other. I also got direct messages relative to parts of the messages or the text that people wanted to know more about. All in all, it turned out to be a really interesting result.
As I write this, only a few days after the tribute release, it has already reached almost 300 views on YouTube. If the power laws of the internet are true, I suspect that this number will increase quite a bit in the coming months. I hope and trust more people on the frontline working their butts off to end homelessness see this and know how much that all of us at OrgCode admire the amazing work that they do. They truly are awesome.
You Are Awesome — A Video Tribute
View the video You Are Awesome —Dedicated to Housing Workers who Believe in Ending Homelessness
Ending homelessness is possible when there are awesome, professional people dedicated to the task.
This video is dedicated to those individuals.
These people inspire me and I hold them in high esteem.
… More to come detailing the video and the role that social media played in creating it.