Recently, Mary Wolfinger with our partner, the Mental Health Court
, a trusted and valued Referring Partner for CFA-Y, shared with us the following:
"Yesterday in court one of our participants said something that made me think of Charity Reimagined. He had a pretty high profile case and is quite mentally ill and ended up in our program. He has really struggled with finding employment. He really wanted to work but struggled with getting hired. Finally, after about three months a local business decided to give him a chance as a dishwasher. He is an excellent employee and has received two paychecks so far. Yesterday he said 'I finally feel like I have some of my dignity back
.'"
Let's call this man "Jay."
We know that work awakens a person's worth. Why? Because when you work, someone is affirming, through their actions, that you have something valuable to contribute to their business, to society.
We were each made with a creative capacity. We were made to create, produce, and participate in exchange. Work affirms our dignity and worth and reminds us of this capacity.
Yet government welfare and many well-intentioned charities only reinforce dependency, communicating to the recipient that he/she has nothing to offer. One-way charity models rarely empower but instead, unintentionally reinforce dependency and send the message of hopelessness and helplessness.
Our hope is to rewrite this narrative. Our hope is that for every touchpoint a person in our community has with a nonprofit or business, there would be an element of exchange that incentivizes work and affirms the individual's potential: where they are working, paying, or
contributing according
to their abilities
in exchange for the good or service sough
t
.
Now, we often get pushback on this message. People feel this is a heartless approach lacking compassion. Because,
after
all, if we hold this standard, that means if someone is unwilling to participate in
exchange
(even in the smallest way), then they may not receive what they are seeking. Aren't we doing this work to help others?
We hear you. And it can be heartbreaking. But we deeply believe our mission is more than meeting short-term needs in an endless cycle of dependency. We want people to flourish for generations. We want to make sure we aren't crippling the people coming to us.
As J.D. Rockefeller put it,
“Charity is injurious unless it helps the recipient become independent of it.”
Pity is not compassion. It does not empower. It treats people as objects. It offers little hope for a future free from the shackles of poverty
.
Our actions communicate something, and we never want to communicate that someone is unable to participate in
rebuilding
their life.
Wise, compassionate charity is relational. It empowers. It asks more, not less, from the people being helped. It offers hope for a future. No matter how downtrodden, it sees the gifts, talents and abilities in each and every person to live flourishing lives, and understands the “how” and the “why” to provide relational, supportive resources and services.
It is not whether resources are needed. It is how they are deployed.
Jay saw these things all on his own.
From the outside, he was totally incapable of holding a job. No one told him he had to work, but he wanted to. And someone gave him the chance to demonstrate his capability.
Incentivizing work within the context of relational services is a life-changing approach for people like Jay that will transform our community.
