This activity is not going to make you any friends with staff. It was an idea that came from a trainer I worked with in Santa Clara, California. It only takes a few minutes, but for best results try to make it a standard practice. It is particularly useful for people working with shelter guests or in outreach.
My advice? Pick a week where you have a few staff meetings going on and have them do this activity more than once, without telling anyone else it is going to happen.
First, Let everyone come to the meeting and sit down. Get settled like normal, while people open their laptops, get their notebooks out, or have their coffee and tea.
Then, Tell everyone we’re doing something a bit different today. Have everyone get up and move to a nonadjacent seat. Set a timer for two or three minutes.
That’s it. Ask a few questions. How did that feel? Did it feel pointless? Are you ready to start the meeting? How did it make you feel as an adult being told what to do?
How do the people we serve feel when we “move them around?” From shelter bed to another shelter or another bed? What about for people outside – given short notice to clear their encampments or reshuffle elsewhere? What affect does this have on our work and how people feel about our engagements when they meet us at outreach or for housing help?
This is a simple activity that serves as a reminder to be empathetic about the constant irritations, indignities and challenges people face when they are struggling with housing. This short activity can also be repeated often as a reminder of what we’re working toward avoiding in our service delivery. The Goal is for it to feel pointless and somewhat irritating.