Forward House Community Society

Forward House Community Society and Micro-Enterprise

Economics professor Muhammad Yunus of Bangladesh created the Grameen ("rural") Bank in 1976 as a means to end poverty and thereby make possible lasting peace among nations by reversing conventional banking practices that require collateral for loans. At a time when his country experienced devastating famine that claimed thousands of lives, the polarity between the anti-poverty theories he taught and the fact of glaring poverty around him moved him to create this revolutionary banking system that invested in the skills and abilities of the poor to help lift them into sustainable livelihoods, work that eventually earned him the Nobel Peace Prize (2006).

Issues of gender contributed to the scale of poverty and Yunus challenged social wisdom by lending money to women.  Micro-loans, small loans re-payable in small, manageable increments, were made to launch micro-enterprise, small, sustainable businesses. Repayment of the loans at a rate of 97% ensured the practice expanded, ultimately to include whole communities. More than 100 Asian and African nations have adopted and benefited from micro-enterprise, and the solvent leading nations, including Canada, have done much to provide capitol.

But poverty does not exist in the emerging world only. It exists in Canada, in B.C., in Parksville. Financial barriers to sustainable living here are in large part attendant to age and illness. Clinging as we do to traditional economic tenets of global economies, corporate monopoly and economic polarity, persons without collateral experience exactly the same obstacles as in Bangladesh. I am saddened to observe that poverty exists alongside affluence and privilege that remain blind to this fact by simply devaluing the personhood of the disadvantaged. It is apparent that the values of our society are instructed by big businesses manufacturing products and a need for them by suggesting we would all be better people if only we possessed them. Our society values acquisition, so the have-nots are devalued by consequence.

And so we self-medicate our carefully deconstructed self-esteem with buying (and with drug-taking), ever narrowing our tolerance for those not keeping up. This is the essence of stigma. The self-loathing we learn from belief in our societal definition of what is acceptable is projected as intolerance. People who do not have reasonable self-respect cannot be respectful of others, most especially those whose fact of living differently challenges our values and beliefs.  That which makes us uncomfortable we do not see if we evaluate it as unworthy of our consideration.

Stigma is alive and over-active in Parksville, as in the rest of Canada. Perhaps the prevalence of mental dis-ease and addiction are products of living in an over-stressed world, out of sync with the more human values. Perhaps we are beginning to understand that the pursuit of wealth that is for the vast majority of us unattainable is not the right path after all. More attention is being afforded the environmental impact of our lifestyle choices, and more energy is being given to community development, simpler living and humanity.

In the meantime, those of us who have schizophrenia or depression or cocaine addiction among our life's experiences continue to be disenfranchised and can't get a loan at a bank. This is a consummate waste of human potential.

It occurred to me while reading about Professor Yunus and his remarkable work in Bangladesh that while Canada can by no means be described as a developing nation, our barriers to autonomy are substantially alike. The poor tend to stay poor because our society simply will not invest in them. We do try to bandage the wounds of poverty with charitable gifts and works, but subsidizing the problem makes it worse, financially and socially. If we hope the poor will emerge from poverty we need to subsidize their abilities instead. And first, we need to look at them to find out what their attributes are. 

At Forward House, talents abound. Musical, mathematical and artistic gifts are in evidence daily. There are those with depression or acquired brain injury who are also well educated and experienced business leaders and teachers, those with schizophrenia who are accomplished painters and musicians. It occurred to me while reading about Dr. Yunus's work in micro-enterprise that Forward House should be doing that. Or something like it.

Our non-profit organization, like others, has developed programs and services intended to meet the needs of our client partners, their families and caregivers, and the community as a whole. Each program ahs been created and evaluated collaboratively with our partners. However, the decision-making rests ultimately with those responsible for the outcome: the directors. This is reasonable because have contractual obligations to VIHA, fiscal responsibility to CRA and our creditors; we must meet public health and safety standards, employment standards and Best Practices guidelines; we must be credible partners of the health, education and justice systems. This makes the balance of power difficult to maintain.

What micro-enterprise does is empower the individual, who decides what undertaking best satisfies his skills, needs, and passion and who, with a little help, becomes responsible for all the decisions and their consequences. He is no longer asked to fit in but asked instead to guide his own ship. This appealed to me. 

Micro-enterprise at Forward House:

Discussion with the whole group of client partners about the history, philosophy and practice of micro-enterprise took place at our weekly house meetings over six weeks. Interest was polled, and those who came forward met separately from that point.

 Goals:

1. to mitigate financial and social barriers to autonomy

2. to promote ability, wellness, self-confidence and healthy esteem

3. to promote community development and inclusion

4. to address the balance of power such that individuals instruct their own values, ideals and ambitions and realize them

5. to promote social equity and parity through partnerships among participants, as between participants and their host community

6. to demonstrate creative, practical and proactive approaches to long standing issues in mental health and addictions

7. to promote self-responsibility

We are not money-lenders, however, so we needed to modify the Bangladesh model. Each group member was given micro seed money to launch his business and the base will be sustained and expanded through payment forward of in-kind skills and services.

The process was as follows: 

• Each of the four starting members was asked to identify his vision and the skills and experience he had to achieve it.
• The accessibility of any and all resources was determined.
• Limitations were identified, thereby articulating the kinds of support needed.
• The vision was organized as short and long term goals and a time line was established.
• This constituted a basic business plan; some are still being developed 
• The tools and resources still needed were defined
• A basic budget was drafted with each member
• Sustainability of the projects was determined

Means of payment forward were negotiated with each member as follows:

• The filmmaker will produce two pro bono films for community agencies
• The writer will teach writing skills to our larger client group
• The d.j. will host two community events pro bono
• The guitar teacher will take two students unable to pay

Discussion:

• Each of the four participants is male, between the ages of 35 and 55
• Each participant has launched an enterprise based on creative gifts. Two are musicians, one of whom will teach 

guitar; the other will d.j. and host karaoke at private functions.

•  One is a writer working on a book of historical essays.
• One is a filmmaker producing relaxation videos intended for viewing in high-stress areas such as dentists' and

doctors' waiting room, birthing rooms and emergency rooms, and airports

Specifically, the guitarist will contribute original music to the filmmaker; the filmmaker will give a music library to the d.j. and word processing software to the writer; the writer will help compose business tag lines; the d.j. will mix sound for the filmmaker. Thus, social enterprise is established.

resource staff and a community micro-enterprise expert

limitation

One participant has extensive experience in business; the other three have negligible experience. Each has stated they wish to commit their time and energy to the creative process. Collectively they agreed to employ the services of a bookkeeper who is working with each member individually with accounting, for a nominal monthly rate. As the businesses develop, the bookkeeper's rate will reflect that growth.  Ultimately, accounting responsibilities will be assumed by each member.

Assets to the micro-enterprise project:

who have acquired brain injury, and who volunteered for two years to establish micro-enterprise in Java, Indonesia.

• Mark contacted us to inquire about our beginning project and has donated considerable time and wisdom to our 

Challenges to the micro-enterprise project:

In the absence of government economic assistance programs, basic survival is a key motivator for success in developing nations.  One wishes to succeed who wishes to eat. Here, persons with disabilities receiving government benefits are permitted to earn up to $500 monthly without penalty. In our experience, 84.6% of our client population receiving benefits prefers to accept the $500 limit to risking the benefits, these constituting assured income, however inadequate. This has proved a significant disincentive.

Central Vancouver Island has statistically more economic assistance recipients per capita than any other region in Canada.  As a consequence of living in an economically depressed area, we experience multi-generational association with government assistance and, in same cases, perceived entitlement. There is a degree of resignation to poverty.  Social stigma that is internalized is another, attendant obstacle. The language applied to and in the main accepted by our mentally unwell and addicted members seems to reflect marginalization internalized. This includes words such as 'victim', 'survivor' and 'consumer', words we do not ourselves use. People who feel good about themselves, who recognize their abilities and talents and risk marketing them are more likely to be interactive, contributing members of a community and to accept responsibility for the outcomes of their actions. Therefore, the opportunity for financial and social autonomy must be provided in concert with opportunities to enhance self-esteem.

Success is critical to people familiar with failure to complete tasks, to fit in, to achieve a reasonable standard of living and to stay clean and sober and well. Growth of this undertaking must therefore be adequately supported by appropriate human and financial resources, necessitating commitment of funds to staffing and capitol. We anticipate including the education, health, business and finance communities in future investments in human potential through micro-enterprise, our projects and their own.

This report will be updated quarterly.

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Last modified: April 01, 2008