I think that you can always tell the true mettle of a country by how governments treat people during hard times. You can also often tell the strength of people by how they respond to tough times. I was on a conference call recently with a number of people from organizations struggling with severe cuts to their funding due, apparently, to the current economic recession. I say apparently because it can be difficult to really determine the motivation of governments. They say one thing but mean another. The cuts though severe have also been quite selective. It seems to me that most of the cuts have been happening to programmes that support the most marginalized people. Unless this is a complete coincidence, which is highly unlikely, then the governments are using the economic difficulties to justify the cuts when the real underlying motivation is political. Punish the poor and further push down marginalized people. Go after people who are not like ‘us’.

Anyway I was talking to people on the teleconference. It would have been easy to get quite depressed as I listened to people talking about what the cuts mean for them. Cuts to the programmes and cuts to the staff group. Everyone was worried about whether they could continue to provide any semblance of an appropriate level of service to the young people they work with on a daily basis. There was initially quite a bit of anger and frustration on the part of people on the call. This went on for some time during the call and then there was a shift. People moved by reacting to the news to supporting each other and then to moving to action. They moved from pessimism and passivity to the beginnings of a development of a plan. It happened without anyone saying anything about it. There was just a shift. It was time to stop complaining and move to doing something. I don’t know if the effort will be successful but I’m sure if it isn’t this group will move to another course of action. That’s who they are as people. They don’t give up and they don’t give in no matter how difficult the problem.

After I got off the phone I thought I had seen all of this before. I’m not talking about the cuts in service. I am old enough that I have seen cuts before although maybe not this bad and not this mean spirited. Rather I’m talking about the response to difficult situations. As I sat there thinking I remembered so many incidences of people in our field who take the worst that can be thrown at them and rather than crumbling they have responded with a strength that says something about them and about our field. I’ve seen it with individual workers who never give up on a young person regardless of how often the young person pushes them away. I’ve seen it on teams where people support each other to provide the best possible service to clients. I’ve seen it in managers who keep finding new ways to deal with adverse situations. I guess one could call it a resiliency. However, this oft used word doesn’t capture the essence of what I’m talking about here. What I’m talking about is a human spirit that I’ve seen so many times in people in this field. When push comes to shove this spirit shines through even in the most difficult situations. It is the spirit that doesn’t take no for an answer. It is the spirit that motivates people to always strive to make this a better world. It is the spirit of child and youth care.

Grant Charles