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Corporation rather than CommunityThe Demise of the U.S. Therapeutic Community
Warning : Exclusion rather than Inclusion
Competition rather than Collaboration=Community Destruction
Naya Arbiter/Amity Foundation Teaching and Therapeutic Communities
WFTC 2018
The Therapeutic Community
A microcosm that serves as a mirror reflecting the problems of our time as they are manifested in individuals. Within the inclusive sanctuary of community people engage in “ Therapia” – the work of the whole. Teaching and learning from each other in community accelerates learning in the emotional, intellectual, cultural and spiritual realms. COMMUNITY AS METHOD
TC Intention 1958
To engage in research and investigation into the causes of personal alienation including but not limited to criminality, delinquency, addiction……no person shall be excluded based on race, religion, gender.. (included gamblers, alcoholics, those blacklisted during McCarthy, Vets, Mafia, scientists etc. )
Therapeutic Community Attributes
• Creation of social capitol• Revolution of inclusion• Collateral benefits family /community• Created “ conspiracy of goodness”• Addressed attendant societal issues• Teaching and Learning Community• Membership feedback• Many roles to play- role development
Therapeutic Community Attributes
• Conditions for Moral Development• Importance of contribution i.e. being needed• In the Circle no one is secondary• Circles ( groups) as a self actualizing process• New person, new experience, new culture, the
most important• Character/authenticity was prime not titles• Awareness of larger social context
Bowling Alone: the Collapse and Revival of American Community
• Written by Robert D. Putnam, 2001• Meta-Analysis of Social Capital:
– connections among individuals and the norms of reciprocity and trustworthiness that arise
• Decline in social capital evidenced by:– Political participation– Civic participation– Religious participation– Workplace networks– Mutual trust– Altruism
Social Capital Examples
Bridging Inclusive
Civil Rights Movement
Bonding Exclusive
Country Clubs/Gangs
• Can exist simultaneously , i.e. church that includes all socio-economic backgrounds
Objectification and Misanthropy
• Millions incarcerated/Guantanamo• Pornography Industry• ‘War porn’ – ‘collateral damage’• Violent video games-cell phones• Government debates over what constitutes torture• MST: Military Sexual Abuse• Holocaust and Civil War revisionists• Sex and Human Trafficking• Textbooks in Texas eliminating role models• Hate Crimes/mass shootings• No integration slavery or genocide of first nations
Elie Wiesel Nobel Peace Prize1986
When language fails violence becomes the language…….
Social Capital in TC deterioratesrather than increases
• Moved from marginalization to mainstream TC’s adopted mainstream corporate language and structure at the expense of inclusion and community
• Less and less role development and community participation by “ executives”
• Group Circles introduced “ facilitators” rather than “hosts” increasing structure in Circles aimed at fixing rather than self-actualizing and exploring
Basic Assumptions Reversal
• Money more important than Mission• Contract Compliance became the end goal
rather than the base for creativity• Increasing WE- THEY dichotomy with faculty
and students• More spectator activities and less
participation• Fewer authentic relationships/mono cultural
Basic Assumption Reversal
• Emphasis on structure and less on internalization, form over essence
• Learning Experiences, pull-ups and viable teaching tools weaponized and used for retaliation /standardized not individual
• Significant reductions in community membership particularly amongst leadership
• Comfort of faculty rather than relevance to students
March of the Acronymsclassification objectification
• LTOP, CCWF, RJD, WAR, ARMS, STOP, MCRP, AB109, NCWF,OTP,PC,PD,PHA, PIVOTS,POC, OMCP, ORAS-CST, PAR….(one TC over 200)
• “ I was at CCWF and the LTOPs were angry because they weren’t eligible for the MCRP”
• Executives identifying people by funding source• Students identifying self by funding source• Acronyms promote stigmatization
ACRONYMSBut the real problem is acronyms have almost magical power, making those who use them seem like influential insiders with status and knowledge; all the while promoting one prejudice over another
John Gamble
Kill the Messenger
• Marginalize /reduce number of witnesses to process of whole person education
• Board of Directors and senior executives increasingly anglo, fewer people of color in position, fewer women
• “ The National Search” for succession rather than internal development. Lack of training for corporate executives/remote workers hired on
Being MORE LIKE A BUSINESS
• We must reject the idea—well intentioned but dead wrong that the primary path to greatness in the social sector is to become “more like a business”…. Many widely practiced business norms correlate with mediocrity, not greatness… Why import mediocrity into the social sectors?
Jim Collins/ Author Good to Great
What is our responsibility?
•
Corporate structure exists to serveSocial Progress and Community
OR
Helen Luke
The world is not moved along so much by the battles it has won and lost, rather by the stories that it has loved and believed in……
The importance of re-claiming story
Re-member
• Latin root Recordari– To pass again through the heart
• Opposite of dismember• To bring back together the
separated pieces– As in ‘to remember the heart’
HeartExperience
Thought Belief
Action
Listen and learn from your studentsDon’t call yourself my counselor, or my officer when you take me to enroll me in school…Bad kids have counselors– say you are my
teacher, and then they will think I am special because my teacher came….
–Juanito, 15 years old, 1992
• What mechanisms are you developing for faculty advocacy and community engagement both in the TC community and larger community?
• Do you have reciprocity partnerships with faculty?
• Do you have focus groups with faculty and students?
Teach and participate in community
• Re-institute membership for all faculty and students ( yes even the accounting department)
• Learn from the students• Add more mechanisms for membership feedback• Understand the “why” of forms• Language of dignity and inclusion• Circles and Ceremony Quality Circles, Talking
Circles, Teaching Circles
Head and Heart Communication
HEAD HEADHEADHEAD
Heart HeartHeart
Head to Heart discussion: using all of our human faculties to communicate and share experience within ourselves and with our
fellows.
Heart
Sanctuary: Initial Interview• Only one chance to make a first impression• Reflection
– writing, movies, place to sit• Introduction of faculty/staff first• Information
– Hope, basics of safety• Traditions and norms vs. rules• Interaction
– Questions and conversation• Follow up
– Direction, sponsor, a place to be ‘attached’
Conditions for Moral Developmentfor all community members
• Credible role models• Many roles to play • Sustained responsibility• Teachers who teach one level above• Conflict ( healthy )• Catalytic relationships - authentic
» Kolberg/Gilligan
Address Issues of our Time
• Sustainability• Sex and human traffic• HIV/AIDS• Poverty• Hate Crimes• Mass Incarceration• Marginalized populations: immigrants, first
nations ,gang members
Freedom from theIndustrial Complex
• Prison Industrial Complex• Food Industrial Complex• Pharmaceutical Industrial Complex
Returning to Inclusion
SOCIAL SERVICE+
SOCIAL JUSTICE=
SOCIAL PROGRESS
Sir Laurens Van Der Post reflecting on World War II
Judgment and justice has brought us far but that far is not far enough. …..This alone could be the beginning of real change in life …. Only by example of patiently living out the change in ourselves can we hope to change for the better the societies to which we belong.
It has become axiomatic for me that we can take nobody and no people further than we have taken ourselves.