People, place, reflective practice and transformational change: Makerita’s story

Initiative: Good Cents Porirua.Theme: Leading in and leaderful.

Download PDF

Personal journeys are interwoven with the places in which we live. Context can be critical, and this is just as important in work situations as it is in personal spaces. At Good Cents, creating an environment that supports, enables and encourages is a key aspect of the personal, relational, structural, and cultural changes that support transformational change.

The first thing you notice about Makerita Makapelu is her positivity.  She’s a “the glass is half full” kinda gal.  As a self-described angry person she was when she was young, Makerita has since recognised that the context in which she lived was a key part of how she presented herself, and how she was assessed by society.  At that time she felt like an “invisible outsider” who was set up to fail, rather than being the recipient of compassion and support from wider society: “It was cold and non-forgiving. It was not a good space to be on that other side.  And I’ve always remembered that.  I learnt about compassion then by feeling the lack of it…but even back then I was wondering how to change that, and  I thought ‘I’m never gonna be like that’”.

Not surprisingly, perhaps, Makerita embarked on what was to be a somewhat difficult personal journey.  The future did not look flash.  In fact, at times, it wasn’t even considered.

However, as life unfolded Makerita’s pathway turned out not to be as was initially expected.  In fact, those early experiences have provided Makerita with a very rich foundation from which to draw from in her work as team leader for the Wesley Porirua Good Cents course.

When she was young, Makerita felt the only thing she had any power over was to speak out when she saw injustice.  Her leaderful qualities were already emerging, albeit with mixed results: “I had to get older to learn how to do that effectively and respectively though!  I learnt, you know, you get more bees with honey and I could still show them what it was like on the other side and not get them angry about it”.

Reflecting on different situations gave Makerita insight into effecting change, and knowing when and how to step up or pull back.  Learning to notice change and communicate and engage effectively has been a key foundation for the many pathways Makerita has walked, and the way she now works in Porirua.  For example, understanding that environments reflect and perpetuate how life is experienced was made very clear to her when, after living elsewhere for some time, Makerita returned to Porirua.  Almost immediately she noticed that the city had changed and thought “If this city can change who it is and what it looks like, then so can I.”

Looking back at that time Makerita reflects on how when she was young, those in her peer group reinforced her experiences of being out of place, angry and invisible.  These relationships helped perpetuate the situation, and the systems she was involved with didn’t respond positively or constructively either.  Learning to look for and see the perspectives of others has been hard going at times that’s for sure.  Yet it is also those experiences that give her insight now with regard to the importance of environment, of relationships and of structures and systems.  “Environment is really important to me… and I think being away for some time meant I could see things differently. It’s something about seeing what you are looking for only, and not knowing what you don’t know,” she says.

There is nothing like having been there and these experiences and insights contribute to what Good Cents is doing too.  With a focus on financial wellbeing, Good Cents is working towards transformational community change in all four dimensions of the quadrants of change as described by Lederach and colleagues (2007).

At a personal level this means connecting with individuals working to identify the response and contribution that each person can make whether that is in the way they take ownership of their own finances or the way that they can support and encourage others towards greater financial stability whatever their role (from community leader to employee of a local lender).  Relationally it means working to overcome the social taboo that personal finances and especially personal debt has, especially in its tendency to create shame and isolation that paralyses movement to change.

Good Cents also works to grow understanding of and influence in the structural systems that support financial stability and reduce dependence on borrowing including participating in government forums and local conversations to share perspectives and grow expertise.  At a cultural level this means identifying and building trust and relationships with cultural leaders that ensure that Good Cents is appropriate and effective cross culturally while also encouraging a culture of growing financial stability. This stability could be a number of things from setting up savings accounts for children through to community based workshops.

Working in this way involves individuals, groups, organisations, and communities working together. It requires many leaders and relies on the development of a reflective practice that allows experiences to be generative, experimental and developmental.  Skills develop through a range of life experiences that may not always be perceived or experienced as positive, but can be reflected on, understood as assets and channelled into constructive outcomes, at all levels.

Intent

Effecting change through reflective communication and leadership.

Key learnings:

• Some things are only learnt through experience.  We each have a history and what we bring as individuals is as important to community-led development as what we create together as communities.  All experience is valued, and contributes to our community ‘expertise’.
• Drawing strength from aspirations can be a significant starting point for both individuals and communities.  earn to know when to lean on others.  Seek them out and, working together, small steps will become exponential over time, bringing dreams into reality.
• You get more bees with honey.  Rather than tackling a situation confrontationally with a head of steam, being sweet-tempered and constructive tends to create more positive changes as well as developing effective and enduring relationships along the way.
• It’s hard to see what you are not looking for, and to know what you don’t know.  A period of distance can help illuminate different perspectives and support new ways of being and doing in a place.

Key outcomes:

• A personal shift from invisible outsider to compassionate community leader who is valued and recognised.
• Effective reflective practice and well-honed communication and comprehension skills, as an individual, team and organisation.
• Recognition of the importance of context and how to modify that via transformational change in all four dimensions.
• Inclusion and valuing of a range of experiences within an organisation.

Key Contact person:

Matt Crawshaw
Good Cents
Wesley Community Action Porirua
MCrawshaw@wesleyca.org.nz
Ph 04 237 7923

Reference

Lederach, J.P, Neufeld, R. and Culbertson, H. (2007). Reflective Peacebuilding: A planning, Monitoring and Learning Toolkit.  The Joan B Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies.

Story written by Denise Bijoux. June 2012.

Partnering and growing together: Good Cents, WINZ and course graduates.

A ‘light touch’: Good Cents enables significant change at a range of levels.

Initiative: Good Cents Porirua.Theme: Leading in and Leaderful

Download PDF

With the Good Cents course now being run from the Community Link centre in Porirua, there are now more and more referrals directly from WINZ.  This has sometimes been challenging at an organisational level, and also at an individual level.  In several cases, WINZ clients have felt compelled to take part and do so only to achieve their aim of getting an advance.  This is not how Good Cents works and has led to some deeply challenging situations, and ultimately significant changes for some of these people.

Many WINZ clients in Porirua are now directed to enrol in Good Cents courses instead of doing traditional budgeting.  Recent regulation changes mean that should a WINZ client apply for an advance, they must complete the ‘budgeting activities’ as required by law.  Essentially this means that they need to show how they are spending their money with a view to understanding why they have no money.  Good Cents, on the other hand, assists course participants to develop strategies for managing their money and reducing their debt, including learning about creating their own budget. These are quite different approaches and can mean that some people arrive on day one of the Good Cents course without completely understanding what the Good Cents course does.

In fact, some individuals are irritated by the requirement to provide WINZ with a budget at all – what they are wanting is a quick fix to what is often a stressful situation, and producing a budget slows this process down.  This irritation can be very much amplified when they also find out that Good Cents will not develop a budget for them, and that they have to do it themselves.  Further adding fuel to that fire of irritation is that sometimes it is not until day one of the course that WINZ clients realise that the course will take 8 sessions to complete.  Clearly, what Good Cents offers is not a quick fix.

From what can be a highly emotional start, however, some participants truly shine.  For example, when Diane (not her real name) started the Good Cents course in early 2012 and realised all of these things she was mightily annoyed.  Even so, she grumpily knuckled down to preparing her budget.  In that process, and with Good Cents help, she discovered she had power to change a lot about her situation and that she could make these changes herself, instead of blaming others.

Several alternative ways of managing her financial situation became apparent as Diane began to work on better understanding her situation herself.  For example, she realised that instead of paying off fines, she could possibly work them off.  She could certainly create the time required far easier than creating the repayment money.  She then asked Good Cents if she could do those hours with the Wesley Community Action in the Porirua office (where Good Cents is also based).  Good Cents did not offer Diane a place to complete her community service; she had to ask for it herself.  Since then Dana has begun to repay her fines by working in the food bank and will soon also complete community service hours by providing support on the next Good Cents course.

The key shift here is that Diane is now taking responsibility for her own situation and has learnt or realised that she always had skills that have enabled her to change that.  From a space of annoyance and distrust, Diane now feels believed in and empowered to take action for herself.  This also means that she respects both herself and others more too.

This space is deliberately constructed – Good Cents takes a ‘light touch’ approach (Blake and Pasteur, undated; Joseph Rowntree Foundation, 2007) in order to create space in which course participants can learn to do things for themselves around their money and wider lives.  The course strongly links with each participant’s wider life experiences and aspirations so as to sustain the learnings achieved on the course over a much longer period.  By being firm about what the Good Cents course will do and flexible about how this might play out with individual participants, different styles of personal leadership are allowed to emerge and these in turn contribute to wider lifestyle changes.

In Diane’s case, her personal changes with regard to her finances have contributed to other changes in her household.  Undertaking community service to pay off her fines initially contributed to an increased chaos in her home because her partner had to care for their young son and do more household related tasks than previously.  With Diane’s growing confidence, these issues were worked out and her partner has begun to grow in confidence too.  He is now more confident as a parent and is very supportive of her looking for paid employment as well.  Both of them now have more aspiration and are actively involved in the creation of their own future.

Intent:  The Good Cents course assists course participants to create their own budget in order to develop strategies for managing their money and reducing their debt

Key Learnings:

• Even when the course content has not been fully described, those who chose to participate are already making an active choice.  Taking a light touch approach throughout the course means that from the get-go participants make their own decision about participating.  This underpins the subsequent decisions they make about significant changes in their lives.
• By not providing easy solutions, course participants must step into their own power, and this is critical for sustaining changes.
• Changes in one person can influence wider changes in their lives, such as with others in their households and this helps create supportive and empowering contexts hat also help to sustain new ways of living.

Key Outcomes:

• Good Cents courses utilise the emotional situations that accompany some of the WINZ-referred participants to help those people move beyond a blaming mentality and into a space of self-empowerment and respect for both self and others.
• Increased confidence to imagine a different and more self determined future and begin working towards it for course graduates.

Key Contact person:

Matt Crawshaw
Good Cents Coordinator
Wesley Community Action
Email: goodcents@wesleyca.org.nz
Ph: 04 237 7923

References:

Blake, R. and Pasteur, K (undated). Learning from practice. Empowering community organisations: A ‘light touch’ approach for long term impact.  http://practicalaction.org/docs/ia1/empowering-community-organizations.pdf

Taylor, M., Wilson, M., Purdue, D., and Wilde, P. (2007).  Changing neighbourhoods: The impact of ‘light touch’ support in 20 communities.  Joseph Rowntree Foundation.http://www.jrf.org.uk/publications/changing-neighbourhoods-impact-light-touch-support-20-communities

Story written by Denise Bijoux and Matt Crawshaw.

Failing Forward: Good Cents skills help tackle budgeting blues.

Good Cents Community Pantry: Growing skills, social connections and food.

Good Cents Core Group: Lived diversity

Initiative: Good Cents Porirua.

Theme: Creating and sustaining momentum

Download PDF

There is no disputing that bringing a diverse and committed core group together to help guide Good Cents towards being more embedded in the Porirua community and to thus catalyse increased financial wellbeing throughout Porirua was a good idea.  Working together over time has, however, been an evolving, emerging and unpredictable experience that highlights both the achievements and challenges of sustained momentum.  

The Core Group of Good Cents emerged from a Beyond the Cycles of Debt: What would it look like? Forum in Porirua in April 2010 and their energy for change was obvious!

Each member brought different skills and connections and also had different aspirations and intentions in their role within the group.  For some, the function of the Core Group was seen as a vehicle for them to actively contribute to making a tangible difference in the Porirua community via Good Cents, complementing and working with the Good Cents staff and the wider Porirua community.  For others, the Core Group has been envisaged as holding the various contributing threads of an aspiration together, with no firm pathway in place.  In this spirit, what the group focuses on is always emerging and it may not necessarily ‘do the doing’:

“…for me it was new territory which means there doesn’t have to be clear outcomes for the group. The thing that is needed is a clear destination.  We may not yet know how to get there…” 

In practice, both of these perspectives are important and finding a workable balance between them has proved tricky.  For example, it took the better part of a year after the 2010 forum to get to agreed themes and areas of focus for the group and some members became frustrated by what they perceived was too much of a “talkfest”, while staff at times felt burdened by what felt like a lot of extra work.

On reflection, those close to Good Cents, including members of the Core Group, now realise that the group needed more guidance in these early stages.  Holding space for creative conversations is valued but so too is directing those energies and, for some group members, the amorphous nature of conversation during group meetings, rather than capitalising on the energies and skills within the group, may have instead stifled them to a degree.  As well, and in hindsight, group members brought different levels of understanding about community-led development and these led to different assumptions about the focus and role of the group.  Even so, over this time a business plan was developed and this is recognised as a significant outcome in and of itself.

The purpose of this plan http://www.wesleyca.org.nz/good-cents-porirua-business-plan-released/ is to communicate “who Good Cents is, what we want to achieve, and how we think we can achieve it.”  Reflecting the journey so far, it is recognised as an evolving plan that establishes a strategic vision and set of action plans, while also understanding that both the horizons and ways of reaching them may well “change and shift”.

The business plan helped provide a framework for the further thinking and development of Good Cents and accountability to supporters, funders and the community.  It also revealed the many “small wins” that had already occurred and helped those involved in the Core Group to see the cumulative value in these.  For example, a fortuitous encounter with Deputy Prime Minister Bill English when he visited the local WINZ office and sat in on a Good Cents course plus a connection with new National Party MP Alfred Ngaro through Inspiring Communities, culminated in Good Cents presenting at a parliamentary forum in May 2012 to an engaged audience of MPs.

Other small wins are closer to home. Individual stories of strength and change have been printed in the local newspaper and conversations of collaboration are happening with Pacific Island church Ministers through the Pacific Island Ministers Forum.  These are achievements in their own right and, alongside the things that haven’t quite worked yet, they are also the incremental evolutionary changes that collectively illustrate the beginnings of fundamental change when it comes to financial wellbeing in Porirua.

Tim Harford (2011) talks about such incremental changes as “…the evolutionary mix of small steps and occasional wild gambles” as “the best possible way to search for solutions” in the context of adaptation.  For him, such changes are critical because they are the products of “ongoing ‘works for now’ solutions to a complex and ever-changing” (p16) situations, such as that within which Good Cents works.  Yet this can be a supremely uncomfortable situation because it is largely the result of trial and error: we don’t know if a tactic will work, but when it does rather than simply replicate it, we must grow it and adapt from it.  This means that the process and journey are just as critical as any small changes. How things are done, is just as important as what is achieved and how these achievements are linked to produce whatever happens next.  The challenge is in the process as much as achieving any outcomes (although outcomes are important too!).

For those in the Core Group, the journey (both how and what) is still unfolding. There is no map, but there are signposts.  Being able to nurture and sustain the energy required, bringing those already engaged along too and growing the movement with others along the way means BOTH thinking and acting differently at an individual level, an organisational level and as a community.

Like the initial period of many cutting edge innovations, the ‘results’ do not yet exceed the efforts put in which means that the diversity and commitment of Core Group is all the more important.  The art and creativity in weaving different skills, connections and aspirations is no easy or quick fix yet it is these processes that underpin the relevance and impact of any outcomes.  Working to the strengths and skills of those who become engaged and seeking out those with skills and ideas to bridge gaps then allowing energy to mobilise in the areas those involved are most interested in allows people to shine.  Done in a collaborative, leaderful way, it can also grow the capacity of others, who can then be supported to work to their own strengths and in their own areas of interest, including bridging gaps.

This can, however, feel quite disparate and disconnected at the same time as it is energising so the ‘weaving’ is as important as the pursuit of particular actions.   As well, working in this way may mean individuals come and go as their energies and areas of interest fluctuate, and as Porirua’s journey of community wealth shifts and change.  Embedding and catalysing change requires a balance of continuity and change that builds on the existing strengths and character of Porirua, in all its diversity and taking a flexible strengths based approach allows people to work within their own capacity in ways that are most relevant and useful at a particular point in time.

More short term small wins will build on those already happening, growing strengths and bridging gaps together in ways that work and adapt for this community.  And for the Core Group as well.

Intent:  The Core Group helps to guide Good Cents towards being more embedded in the Porirua community and to thus catalyse increased financial wellbeing throughout Porirua.

Key learnings:

• Commitment to a particular initiative or cause from diverse perspectives means that understandings, aspirations and contributions can also be quite diverse, and difficult to align and/or feel like traction is being made.  Having a clear common goal is critical and communicating how diverse perspectives can contribute to that goal helps bring alignment, understandings and traction.
• Working to strengths and where energy is naturally mobilising tends to yield small wins quickest.  Sharing these wins grows the energy into new directions that also yield relatively quick small wins.  Together, and incrementally, these become locally generated, relevant changes. Overall change will take time.
• Working in this way can feel disparate and disconnected which, coupled with a shifting and changing horizon, can be difficult to see significant changes from.  Ensuring the various activities are linked, interwoven and even interdependent on some level helps to support the collective nature of community change.  Some continuity and stability amidst the various efforts is important.
• Not everything has to be done by staff – the Core Group exists because individuals want to contribute! Let them!!

Key outcomes:

• The Core Group brings a range of interested and skilled people together for a common purpose that extends the capacity of Good Cents and offers opportunities to take Good Cents into new directions.
• The  co-created business plan now helps focus and guide the next steps of Good Cents actions and development.
• Development of creative processes of working together are exposing members to different ways of doing things and forging new levels of respect for and understanding of one another, as well as for themselves as a collective.

Key Contact person:

Matt Crawshaw
Good Cents Coordinator
Wesley Community Action
Email: goodcents@wesleyca.org.nz
Ph: 04 237 7923

Reference:   Harford, T, (2011). Adapt: Why success always starts with failure. Little, Brown. London.

Story written by Denise Bijoux.

Looking for leadership in unexpected places: Good Cents course

Download PDF
The Good Cents course is about more than budgeting. It has been developed by two staff from Wesley Community Actions Cannons C reek office in Porirua and is specifically tailored to low income and benefit recipients who are experiencing financial difficulty and crippling cycles of debt. The aim is to empower participants to take control of their financial situations through supporting and equipping them socially, emotionally and in their financial literacy to generate change.

The Good Cents course is embedded in a philosophy that encourages people to look at their own contribution to their financial situation and works to enable course participants to identify the positive actions they can take to reduce or eliminate their dependency on debt and grow their investment in their future. Before this can happen it was realised by Makerita and Matt – the facilitators of the course – that the first step is dealing with the overwhelming isolation and shame that go hand in hand with the experience of financial distress.

A key tool for beginning to break down these barriers is the sharing of personal experience and stories between participants – through which the realisation comes that they are actually not as alone in their experiences as they had thought. Knowing that others are struggling helps create the course and fellow participants as a safe space for sharing their difficulties. This has proven to have a powerful effect on people. Once these guards are down, course participants are free to begin creating the change that they’ve been held back from in the past, by their own inhibitions.

So a key challenge for facilitators is to find ways to encourage people to be willing to step out from that ‘island’ of isolation and shame. One way to achieve this that has proven very successful is for Makerita and Matt as facilitators to learn to look for leaders in each group to help with leading the way – off that island as it were. Experience has shown repeatedly that these leaders are often not those that might have first been expected to take such a role. This acknowledgement in itself has encouraged a much more ‘wide open’ view from the facilitators in looking for leadership in unsuspecting places and people.

Often the first signals of growing leadership in someone are very tentative – little bids on the part of one or two participants which indicate a willingness to be vulnerable, to put themselves ‘out there’, taking the risk that they’ll look stupid. Frequently the courage is drawn from a desire to do what’s best for the others in the group, to support and encourage them (rather than for any direct benefit for themselves). This is a key quality of the leadership that is needed in this situation – the willingness to act for the group’s benefit, and prioritising this over any drive of self preservation. By recognising and strongly encouraging people who make these first steps, they grow and the group culture begins to develop.

As Peter Block (2008: 63) writes, “Choosing to be accountable for the whole, creating a context of hospitality and collective possibility, acting to bring the gifts of those on the margin into the centre – these are some of the ways we begin to create a community of citizens”. Block links citizenship to power, and describes how a true citizen reclaims their power such that “the audience creates the performance”. This is what happens in a Good Cents course. Nudging the leadership of participants to the fore confronts their freedom to choose a new way of living where they have more financial control and wellbeing. It also means that, in effect, they create the culture of their course. Who is there matters, and that it is them that is there matters.

As Block also says, accountability and commitment are forever paired, and come in many different guises. A quiet person who is reliable and contributes with no expectation of a personal return on their investment in the group can be a powerful leader for both the group and for themselves. One example of such a leader was Catherine (not her real name). Catherine is a very quiet and unassuming person much of the time and in the group setting didn’t at first stand out. But as the sessions of the course progressed Catherine began to quietly contribute. Her contributions had a significant effect, not only on herself in terms of breaking down some of the isolation she felt, but also on others who were able to take courage for her lead. Interestingly Catherine didn’t become especially confident in sharing or participating in the group – and she probably would never have perceived herself a leader. She continued contributing in a quite and unassuming way and backed her contributions up by being reliable in making every session of the course.

It was a difficult journey for Catherine, because as the isolation and related denial reduced, she began to feel worse as she was faced with the reality of her financial situation. With knowledge came depression. But this didn’t stop her or cause her to retreat to the false safety of the island again. She continued to grow herself and guide the group in her own ways.

A turning point for Catherine happened when one day she ended up volunteering for the day in Wesley Community Actions Porirua food bank. It was an impromptu decision on Catherine’s part, with no expectation of personal reward. It just happened that on the day she was at the Wesley office the food bank was short on volunteers and so she got dropped right in!

Catherine reported that the experience had made such a difference to her sense of well-being and motivation because she felt she’d been able to do something truly good and worthwhile. The opportunity to give back and to do something that was ‘outside’ of herself gave her the strength to continue with creating change in her life. From this point Catherine continued to create change in her own situation with a new sense of ownership and self-worth. She has now taken on a formal role as a volunteer at the food bank and has found that this commitment continues to help her feel more motivated in her own life. Catherine loves the feeling of being useful and like she’s making a difference in the lives of others too.

Intent:

A key part of the Good Cents course is about nurturing leadership. This happens through the ways the facilitators look for leaders, how participants own their role in their own situations and futures and how both of these contribute to the culture and dynamic of the group.

Key learnings:

· Looking for leadership in less likely places and people means learning to see what is relevant and resonating within the group, rather than applying some externally developed model or format.

· Leadership from within a group is more powerful than that from outside when it comes to significant personal change. Significant change needs to be grounded in genuine experiences that are shared by people in similar situations in order for those people to step out of their comfort zone and into a new way of living.

· Knowledge is not necessarily power, and can in fact be incredibly disheartening. This means that significant change is a journey that has as many downs as ups and requires significant courage and commitment. Walking alongside others with the same struggle can grow not only personal motivation, it is also grows empathy and support.

· Feeling useful and valued is a critical aspect of self-worth, and it requires significant self-worth to be bothered to change. Volunteering is an accessible and achievable way of nurturing self-worth while giving back to a community and feeling useful and valued.

Key outcomes:

· The course creates a space safe enough to share aspects of individual lives that have often been kept hidden from even the closest of people.

· Leadership from unlikely places and people has proven to be the most effective way of growing a group culture that is conducive to change. Knowing someone like you is stepping up and making significant change is a huge motivator to do the same.

· Individuals step up and make a difference in their own personal lives and the lives of those around them. Sometimes this drive for change also extends to contributing to the wider community. In fact all of these things are interwoven. Course facilitators have learnt that leadership comes in many guises. They continue to learn just how many and to effectively enable it to shine.

Key Contact person:

Matt Crawshaw

Good Cents Coordinator

Wesley Community Action

Email: goodcents@wesleyca.org.nz

Ph: 04 237 7923

Reference:
Story written by Matt Crawshaw and Denise Bijoux.

June 2012

Neighbourhood development – no one size fits all

During 2010-2011 with a sound foundation, community mandate and an experienced and respected worker in place, the Massey Ranui neighbourhood-led approach unfolded in a multitude of ways – many unexpected.

While there may not be any one size fits all approach that is effective, having a clear focus has helped reveal a number of common guiding principles and practices.

Read more; Neighbourood Development – No one size fits all

Rakiura Community Expo

At a September 2011 ‘Snack and Yak’ gathering of community groups in Stewart Island, Rakiura, the idea of holding a community expo was proposed as a way for local groups and projects to promote themselves and their needs to others in the wider community.

It was  also  hoped this event could be a way to reach out to those new-ish to the Island, enabling them to find out more about what was happening and how they could get more actively involved in community activities.

Read More; Rakiura Community Expo

Massey and how local government helped ‘make it matter’