ASLAN
Best Practice Guide: The
Visiting Scheme
The
intention of the scheme is to send pairs of volunteers out to visit street
homeless or recently rehoused people whom ASLAN has got to know well; to take
them out for a meal; to provide social and spiritual support; to identify their
needs and to link them into the professional individuals/organisations who can
meet those needs.
·
To
provide social contact and a good meal
·
Working
in conjunction with the Entertainment Events, to provide some fixed reference
points in a life which might otherwise be full of aimlessness and a sense of
drift
·
To
help our contacts to establish links with (individuals within)
organisations who can provide a range of services/advice - e.g. day centres,
street outreach teams, social workers, advice centres, and support groups.
To
identify their specific needs and work towards finding the professional help
which will meet those needs (see Long-Term Objectives)
·
To
build up trust but simultaneously to foster independence
·
To
work towards developing a thorough understanding of why/how they are on the
streets; if they are unwilling to visit day centres and/or accept professional
help, what is the basis of their reluctance; what would be the most appropriate
route for them to be rehoused; what job opportunities might they be suited to;
what are (or could be) their career ambitions; what advice and training might
assist them to find employment; what needs do they have which cannot be met
currently (either because existing facilities are working to full capacity or
because no appropriate facilities exist)
·
To
provide spiritual support - Where appropriate, to invite them to join the ASLAN
table at the next Christianity Explored course and/or to invite
them to attend All Souls or Clubhouse services
·
To
facilitate rehabilitation, effecting introductions to: Detox schemes; mental
care schemes and counselling; advice on benefits and other entitlements;
housing advice and provision; employment training and advice; activities which
can occupy those who are lonely and/or jobless
Each
team consists of three people: two “visitors” and a “prayer partner”. The
visitors take the homeless or recently rehoused contact for a meal from 7.00 -
9.00 p.m. every other Monday. Each “visitor” contacts their prayer partner when
they return home (which means the prayer partner must be at home between 9.30
and 10.30 p.m. every other Monday) to:
a)
Indicate
that they have returned home safely
b)
Give
brief details of key developments in the contact’s life (which the prayer
partner must write down, so that if either or both team members leave,
the replacement visitor(s) can be properly briefed)
c)
Give
praise points and prayer requests to be prayed over during the next two weeks
In addition,
there is a full team meeting every six weeks (on a Monday when no-one is
visiting), when we meet to report back in the strictest confidence on
every person we are currently visiting, to seek advice and prayer support from
our colleagues, and to pray together about issues discussed. It is an absolute
rule of team meetings that nothing discussed in the meeting will be divulged
outside the meeting, even to other ASLAN members. We do, however, provide an
edited and “sanitised” version of key prayer points for each contact to be
prayed over anonymously during the ASLAN prayer meeting on the second Sunday of
every month.
Whilst
Monday is the preferred visiting day, if all three team members - and
particularly the contact - wish to meet on another day of the week, this is
acceptable - provided that you then meet regularly every two weeks on
the same day of the week.
The ideal pairing
would be a man and a woman (or two men for certain problem contacts). However,
with relatively few men in ASLAN, we may need to establish one or more
all-female teams, provided that both women feel comfortable and confident to go
visiting together.
In addition to prayer
partners, we will also need people who can make daytime telephone calls to
partner agencies and/or be able to accompany homeless contacts to their first
vital meeting at a detox centre, mental clinic, housing advice centre, etc.
Last, but by no means least, we will require people who can undertake
information searches, correspondence, and record-keeping.
Suggested meal budget
for 3 persons: around £15 - £20. One “visitor” in each team needs to accept
responsibility for paying the bills and submitting receipts to the ASLAN
Treasurer on a monthly or (preferably) quarterly basis. That person will then
be given a month’s (or a quarter’s) “float” by the ASLAN Treasurer.
Our
relationship will be neither that of a friend nor that of a professional.
However, it does contain aspects of both a friend and a professional. Just as
we need a new word to describe our contacts (a word which is between client
and friend), so we need a new word to describe ourselves (a word which
is between professional and friend) - all suggestions gratefully
received! However, for the moment, we will refer to ourselves as visitors.
|
Our
Relationship SHOULD Be: |
Our
Relationship Should NOT Be: |
|
An
intermediary |
An
interventionist/controller (interfering) |
|
Building
trust |
Building
dependency |
|
Caring |
Affectionate |
|
Friendly
(e.g. smiling, joking) |
Physical
(e.g. touching, embracing) |
|
Concerned,
open and honest |
Involved,
close and intense |
|
General
in reference to ourselves |
Personal
in reference to ourselves |
|
As
a listener |
As
a judge (or conversely, as a collaborator) |
Some
warning signs that could indicate we have strayed from the relationship defined
above: Feeling guilty (e.g "I should be doing more" or "I should
be sharing more in this person's predicament"); Feeling scared (e.g
"what am I getting myself into here"); If the person becomes
demanding and/or over-affectionate. If
any of these warning signs emerge on a visit, we should share them immediately
with our prayer partner and our team leader.
Unless
specifically sanctioned by the team leader, we never - repeat NEVER - meet with
a contact on our own, we never - repeat NEVER - give our home address to a
contact, and we never - repeat NEVER - ask our partner where they live or work
in front of our contact.
1. A
“Link Map” to show the person where they can meet immediate needs in their area
(e.g. doctor, dentist, detox centre, day centre, housing advice, etc.)
2.
Available support for a newly-housed person
3. Basic
information on the principal causes of homelessness; the roles of various charitable,
state, and borough organisations dealing with the homeless; a homeless person’s
entitlements to: benefits payments, housing, job training, etc; the principal
types of mental disorder which are likely to affect homeless people
4. Body
language
5. How
to control difficult situations (e.g. anger management)
6.
Communication skills (esp. sharing the Gospel)
A number
of organisations have been identified as potential partners/advisors and/or as
links to potential partners/advisors: Mental Health: S.A.N.E;
M.I.N.D; RELEASE; Day Centres: St.
Martin-in-the-Fields Day Centre; The Passage Day Centre; West London Day
Centre; Alcohol & Drugs: Alcoholics
Anonymous; Narcotics Anonymous; Samaritans; Outreach Agencies: Crisis; New Horizon; Oasis; St.
Mungo’s; Salvation Army; Shelter; ThamesReach-Bondway
S.W.O.T. Analysis (Strengths, Weakness,
Opportunities, Threats)
Strengths: God is in this work and leading this work;
enthusiasm/commitment; numbers/funds; good (professional) contacts; homeless
contacts; experience/reputation
Weaknesses:
We are
(mostly) amateurs; we are (mostly) very busy elsewhere; most of us have never
done this before; Satan is against us
Opportunities:
To make a real
difference; to be a bridge between the “professionals” and the
difficult-to-reach; to get people rehoused and keep them rehoused; to
open up new areas of service for ASLAN/All Souls/other churches; to create a
vision and a precedent for other organisations; to win souls for Christ; to
show God’s love in a practical, caring, and committed way
Threats:
Trying to do
too much too quickly; conflicting with and/or duplicating the efforts of
existing professional helpers; not knowing the appropriate boundaries for these
new relationships; inappropriate male/female relationships; creating
over-dependency and/or unrealistic expectations of us
Author: Chris
Peacock
Last Revised:
April 2002