In September we are discussing our we measure ‘success’ and the ‘outcomes’ we see through our work with our service users. Here one of our support workers gives a brief introduction to the unique way in which Simon on the Streets understand ‘success’.
One of the main things that drew me to Simon on the Streets was that unlike some large corporations which have profit as their main motivation, as an independent charity SOTS measures success not in monetary values but in terms of social impact by maintaining a “focus on those who don’t get a service from other agencies”. For statutory agencies it is often concluded that for some people, things will never change, success is just a pipe dream, failure is inevitable and they will never make any progress. Indeed they are considered to be beyond any help at all and are often simply abandoned to their lot in life. Once gone, easily forgotten.
For me I needed to ask “So where do the marginalised and stigmatised amongst us go from here? “What would success look like for someone outside the system? How would I define success? Some people would probably describe success as being about accomplishing your goals, doing your best, being productive, having self-worth and being loved etc. All perfectly acceptable goals but also on one level completely arbitrary. In other circumstances some people would just as easily compile a different set of answers.
I believe that the definition of success depends on and derives from the individual involved and is highly personal. It should not be judged relatively and measured using other people’s parameters. A person’s accomplishments and successes are their own, measured according to their own standards. It has to be deeply rooted in a person’s immediate day to day experience and recognised for what it is.
As a worker I meet people every day who are successful in facing an indifferent and often hostile world. I am impressed by their ingenuity, resilience and endurance. You are successful when you try again for the umpteenth time to do something. You are successful when each day you decide this day will be better because you will do this small thing differently. You are being successful when you decide that yesterday has gone but you still have a dream. Success is there in overcoming fear. Success is accepting that sometimes you lose a battle but you are still fighting the war. Success is when you are ready to live another day. There is no minimum or maximum level of success …………only success.
Recently I began work with E. She has been dependent on alcohol for many years and had lost custody of her child, a situation that she bitterly regretted and still hoped to reverse. However in our initial meetings E acknowledged that her lack of sobriety was a major obstacle to her realising her hopes in regards to her daughter and she had become resigned to not having regular contact. We agreed that a practical and concrete goal for E to aim for would be a brief period of sobriety of two hours on the day to cover the contact session. She would be able to resume drinking later if she so wished. To E’s utter amazement she remained sober as planned and upheld her end of the bargain. Was two hours for a single day such a big deal? Of course it was. For E this meant everything and changed everything. This meant success in that she had accomplished the goal she had set for self. She could see that she had persevered against the odds and had managed to stop drinking for the sake of her child. She had spent some quality time with her daughter and had confounded herself in so many ways.
Suddenly her horizons had widened and her world had changed. She felt stronger and emboldened to try other things and felt moved to say “thank you so much for your help these last few weeks, you proper helped me accomplish things and I’m very grateful, I hope you can help me do more things. You have given me the push I needed.”
Since then E has sustained her efforts with her daughter and she has had a further three more successful contacts. Of course she has found it difficult at times both physically and emotionally and there is the obvious risk that one day she might not be able to sustain her efforts. However, in the here and now E’s story is by anyone’s definition a success story and she is writing it on her own terms.