Julia:

Your question of how we create a hospitable space at the ECWT office has been rolling around in my head.  Knowing whether or not people felt welcome is always tricky, and if they did, what helped them feel welcome is maybe even trickier! 

My reflections start with this assumption: The basic need for people who come to the ECWT office in Goshen or Elkhart is to have their experience taken seriously. 

That starts with asking the question, “How are you doing?”  It involves meeting people at the door, and offering something to drink.  That sends a message – “We are not all about processing your request and signing you up for help.  We are about you.  We want to learn to know you.  We have time.  This is a place where you can come and relax.”

Offering hospitality means being willing to ask hard questions.  As you learn to know people without jobs, you learn to ask questions that aren’t usually asked in “polite” society.  Where did you work last?  When did you lose your job?  Are you signed up for unemployment benefits?  How are you holding up?  What are you finding most difficult about this experience?  How are your children reacting to this?  Does your spouse work?  How are things with you and your spouse?  What’s your financial situation like?  Are you keeping up with your mortgage?

These are not questions that are asked in the first 15 minutes, nor are they questions everyone would get asked in a particular sequence, or in one setting.  Maybe the important part is to say that hospitality involves creating a place where people know they can “go anywhere they want” in terms of sharing their experience, and sometimes part of creating that place involves asking the right question at the right time.

I think the brag board was important, and it was important having everyone sign it.  That made it something for everyone to think about – identifying their gifts and strengths and being affirmed as an important part of the community, not just unemployed people.

I think it has been important that everyone connected with ECWT here is signed up in the Skills Bank.  The hospitality offered here is between members of the same community.  Yes, some of us are unemployed  and some of us are under-employed, and we have different skill levels and wealth levels.  So I’m not claiming some false equality.  But being in the Skills Bank has been invaluable in terms of knowing how it works and being able to tell people you’re in there and finding your own page.  It does get at the “us – them” dichotomy to some extent.

It’s important to enjoy people.  If someone is “working” at the ECWT space and a “client” comes in, it’s a business transaction.  If someone is “hanging out” at the ECWT space and someone else comes in to hang out, it’s a personal interaction (even if “work” gets done at some point and a person is signed up or gets information about gardens, etc.)  It’s about an attitude.  Unemployed people need a beautiful, safe, relaxing place to hang out.

Plus, Fair Trade coffee and tea, by donation if you can, no donation needed.

I’m anxious to visit your office when it gets up and running, and see all the ways you put your stamp on the space you create. 

Yours in peace,

David