In this project I had the privilege of working with five members of Focus Ireland’s Lived Experience Ambassador Programme (LEAP). Using a method called photovoice, we worked together over several weeks exploring the experience of homelessness.
Photovoice has several layers to it, it is a research method rooted in community activism which traditionally has been used to give voice to those who are often silenced or marginalised in society. It is also a narrative therapeutic technique which has been found to assist in the process of post traumatic growth, a process whereby we make sense of traumatic events and reclaim our voice and agency. A third important use of photovoice is advocacy – it has been used as a method of engaging with policy makers and the general public in a way which increases a sense of understanding and empathy regarding people’s lived experience. In this project we aimed to draw on all these layers in order to explore experiences, reclaim voice and increase awareness.
As I worked on collating the Lived Experience Ambassadors photographs and words into this report, two images kept coming to me – firstly the image of broken china mended using the Japanese method of Kintsugi, where the cracks are mended using a gold lacquer. This process renders the breakage points a highlight of the piece, a mark of unique beauty, a one-of-a-kind golden constellation. The other image that resonated as I worked on this project is the Enso symbol, another Japanese concept roughly translated as ‘circle of togetherness’. It is an open circle which is used in the Zen Buddhist tradition to refer to a state of enlightenment, strength, and the cyclical nature of life. For me, both are concepts which place compassion and wisdom at the centre, compassion for our own broken places and compassion for others. Those challenges which crack us open in a way that increases our ability to be open-hearted and empathetic with others. Those breaks which widen our circle of compassion, our communities of kinship as Father Gregory Boyle puts it. The LEAP Ambassadors are an example of such a community of kinship.
We do not escape traumatic experiences unscathed. But with both practical and emotional help, support, and compassion – we can work on mending those places and those scars can be part of our strength and beauty. They increase our ability to be empathetic, to widen our circle of compassion to the outer edge of society, so that no-one feels that they are excluded, left at the margins. That is what I witness whenever I work with a group of people who have navigated traumatic life events such as homelessness, and is certainly what I experienced working with the Focus Ireland LEAP ambassadors.
Whether we are ‘stronger at the broken places’ to paraphrase Hemingway, or whether the ‘wound is the place where Light enters you’ as Rumi is oft-quoted as saying, is true for each individual who has experienced the pain of a traumatic life events, or not is a matter for each person to consider for themselves. Certainly what I found when working with the Focus Ireland LEAP Ambassadors is that there is a deep beauty and compassionate wisdom in their scars. They illuminate through the telling of their experiences, and their vulnerability is inspiring and beautiful.
The full report can be downloaded here.
