Our interactions with members should feel like a relationship and not a transaction.
If you’re like many of us, a sense of unease settles as you read the lyrics below from Gabriel Kahane’s piece performed by Oregon Symphony and Maybelle Community Singers.
Gabriel has a gift for using words to communicate the loss of self that can be transmitted by many human service organizations. And unfortunately, policies that increase organizational efficiency sometimes have unintended consequences on service-users.
When members share their experiences working with other organizations, sometimes we hear things like, “I feel like I’m reduced to a number,” or “I’m identified by a problem” – instead of being recognized as a person with talents and gifts, and hopes and dreams, like all of us.
That’s why it’s so important for us at Maybelle Center to slow down our conversations with members and really listen.
Thank you For Completing This Form
Excerpt from movement XIII of “emergency shelter intake form,” by Gabriel Kahane. Originally performed by Maybelle Community Singers and the Oregon Symphony.
Thank you.
Thank you for your patience.
Thank you for trekking from office to office.
Thank you, thank you for enduring the long lines,
The clutches of crying children,
Thank you
The downturned mouth of your caseworker,
Thank you
The bad fluorescent lighting.
Thank you
Sleeping in chairs,
Middle of summer,
Way too much air-conditioning,
Thank you for completing this form.
…
For enduring this and more
We are pleased to inform you
That tonight we can offer
In a concrete church basement
In the room to the right as you enter the door
An emergency shelter bed.
You will need to be gone
By six thirty am.
Originally published in our 2018 Annual Report.
