A Roller Coaster Ride

Posted by Carolyn Lockett on 7 September 2010 | 0 Comments

As I sit here trying to type my blog I struggle to find words that could accurately describe my last two weeks.  I’ve had swine flu, I’ve lost a close family friend, I have a new puppy named Billie and I’ve spent hours thinking, dreaming and imagining what is to come of the Family Project now but also in the years to come.  Once again I’ve ventured into areas of the unknown – some days coping well and others more of a struggle.  There is something really exhausting about pouring your heart, soul and thinking into an idea only to find out it really doesn’t work for families.  Having said that it’s the continuous designing, re-designing and co-creating with families that, in the end, will help families get to the “good stuff” and share many experiences along the way!

So hold on to your seats people – we think we’re onto something!  The idea is called “Family by Family” – and its exactly as it sounds.   As you’ve read in previous blogs the notion of person to person is so important as a mechanism of support for people, parents and families.  So for those families who don’t have natural support systems we are co-designing a way to enable families to connect with each other’s strengths and opportunity areas.  In some cases this may be someone to share a meal with in other cases it may be support around children’s behaviour – either way it’s a personal approach that can last five minutes or a lifetime.  Family by Family isn’t so much a service as a way of thinking or a movement. 

The concept of Family by Family has so much potential – I see the sky as the limit.  One of the biggest challenges that I’m personally passionate about is the interface with the system.  How can social workers connect the dots with their own work, how can the system learn from families?  For me this may be the biggest challenge.  Just like some of the families we’ve met, workers in the system are just surviving but in many cases desiring so much more.  So now we are at the point of designing how we bring two opposite sides of the world together.   Over the next few weeks we will be spending more time with social workers asking many questions, challenging the answers and the language they use to describe what they do.  If we can shift the system thinking even an inch to start with – I’ll be over the moon!  In the meantime I have every thing crossed that the next few weeks will turn this rollercoaster into something more manageable, like a train ride or even a speed boat!

 

I’ll keep you posted :)