Breaking the cycle of poverty
The Salvation Army is introducing a new approach to the way it deals with emergency welfare relief. The Australia Eastern Territory’s Community Services Coordinator, Ronda McIntyre, explains the new Doorways model.
Catherine Booth, the “mother of The Salvation Army”, once said: “There is no improving the future without disturbing the present.”
The Australia Eastern Territory’s new Doorways model, and the establishment of a Doorways Assessment Centre, is set to disturb the very core of traditional emergency relief and welfare service delivery through The Salvation Army.
The new model will provide an opportunity for the delivery of more financially sustainable and effective services to vulnerable people, as well as renewed mission and true connection through this ministry.
Innovative model
Recognising the limitations of the current emergency relief model, and working within the changes that the Commonwealth Government have been introducing into funding requirements, The Salvation Army’s territorial social departments in the Australia Eastern and Southern territories began researching and developing new approaches to delivering emergency relief.
This new approach is known as “Doorways”. It was introduced in 2009 and over the past six years has been progressively implemented in Salvation Army emergency relief services across Australia.
The Doorways model is an innovative case management model that was created as a response to address the limitations of traditional emergency relief/welfare services.
The Doorways mission is to build the capacity of those who are seeking welfare assistance, while creating pathways out of hardship and poverty for individuals and families.
The Salvation Army Australia Eastern Territory piloted the Doorways Assessment Centre in June 2013 to reduce the burden of delivering traditional welfare assistance in its community welfare centres. It also aimed to increase the amount of quality time to enable officers, Doorways/ welfare workers and volunteers to build positive engagement with community members who are in financial hardship.
A centralised telephone assessment will ensure a professional first response and assessment that is consistent across the territory. It has the capacity to free our people in our community centres and corps from the ever-increasing demands of delivering material assistance, thus enabling them to provide holistic assistance and connect community members to referral services and corps activities.
Subsequently, this new approach has further empowered the Army’s Doorways/community services to help individuals and families find freedom from poverty through action, community and faith.
Rather than simply focusing on the presenting issue, Doorways seeks to address the underlying cause of the financial crisis. It aims to transform the thinking of people who are caught in entrenched poverty. Doorways moves beyond current paradigms of welfare assistance to relational partnerships that guide people to see a more positive vision of their future.
Holistic support
The Doorways philosophy, “One Door – No Wrong Door”, aims to develop The Salvation Army’s community welfare centres into places that emphasise creating positive engagement with all clients and provides access to holistic, integrated support. Clients are then able to access a range of social and practical support delivered by a wide variety of community agencies that addresses their specific underlying issues.
Missional opportunities to connect and build relationships with people seeking emergency relief assistance are primarily transferred to local Salvos Connect sites. Connect sites will be encouraged to develop an environment that welcomes emergency relief applicants and offers complementary services such as meals, groups, coffee, etc.
Doorways case workers who journey with emergency relief applicants with complex needs and who work from local Salvos Connect sites, will also be ideally placed to undertake holistic mission and connect clients with relevant corps activities and supports.
Comments
This system actually disadvantages needy people. They are required to wait on the phone for long periods, using exorbitant amounts of phone credit.