Some years ago I took on an assignment in a southern county to work with
people on public welfare. What I wanted to do was show that everybody has
the capacity to be self-sufficient, and all we have to do is to activate them.
I asked the county to pick a group of people who were on public welfare, people
from different racial groups and different family constellations. I would then
see them as a group for three hours every Friday. I also asked for a little
petty cash to work with as I needed it.
The first thing I said after I shook hands with everybody was, "I would
like to know what your dreams are." Everyone
looked at me as if I were kind of wacky.
"Dreams? We don't have dreams." I
said, "Well, when you were a kid what
happened? Wasn't there something you wanted to do?"
One woman said to me, "I don't know what you can do with dreams. The rats
are eating up my kids."
"Oh," I said.
"That's terrible. No, of course, you are very much involved with the rats
and your kids. How can that be helped?"
"Well, I could use a new screen door because there are holes in my screen
door."
I asked, "Is there anybody around
here who knows how to fix a screen door?"
There was a man in the group, and he said, "A long time ago I used to do
things like that, but now I have a terribly
bad back, but I'll try."
I told him I had some money if he would go to the
store, buy some screening, and go and fix
the lady's screen door.
"Do you think you can do that?"
"Yes, I'll try."
The next week, when the group was seated, I said to the woman, "Well is
your screen door fixed?"
"Oh, yes," she
said. "Then we can start dreaming, can't we?" She sort of smiled at me. I
said to the man who did the work,
"How do you feel?"
He said, "Well, you know, it's a very funny thing. I'm beginning
to feel a lot better." That helped the group
to begin to dream. These seemingly small successes allowed the group to see
that dreams were not insane. These
small steps began to get people to see and feel that something really could
happen.
I began to ask other people about their dreams. One woman shared that she
always wanted to be a secretary. I said,
"Well, what stands in your way?" (That's always my next question).
She said, "I have six kids, and I don't have
anyone to take care of them while I'm away."
"Let's find out," I said.
"Is there anybody in this group who would take
care of six kids for a day or two a week while this woman gets some
training here at the community college?"
One woman said, "I got kids, too, but I could do that."
"Let's do it," I said. A plan was created and the woman went to school.
Everyone found something. The man who put in the screen door became a
handyman. The woman who took in the
children became a licensed foster care person. In 12 weeks I had all these
people off public welfare. I've not only
done that once, I've done it many times.
