Fort St. John is ridiculously windy in the spring. By the time I walk from my car to the office, my hair is a tangled mess stuck pointing one direction and I have dirt in my eyebrows. It's also not very warm, so the two together give me the impression that my usual summertime favourites (ex. going to the beach) are going to need a bit of tweaking. I'm hoping to find some hiking around town and I'm on the lookout for outdoorsy people to befriend! Something that is pretty cool/ jarring though is that the amount of light in a day - the other night I left the pub and it was still so bright out!
I've just finished my first week, and I am finding a great fit with my job, and a funny fit with the town.
Here are some highlights!
1. There is a really alive and active poverty law community online. I've joined emailing lists which are full of other poverty law advocates (usually with various community groups in different towns, just like us) with a wealth of knowledge. It's heartening to see so many people doing this kind of work. The disheartening part, though, is that very few of them are lawyers. Most are like my direct supervisor who has a background in something related (social work, criminology) but who learned everything on the job. Both of us are supervised by a lawyer in town who signs off on everything we write and any full representation we do, but unfortunately there just isn't much funding for full time lawyers in poverty law. Only really exceptional/ egregious cases or charter challenges end up being forwarded to the lawyers at organizations like TRAC or CLAS (who, incidentally, were at the UVic wine and cheese!).
2. There's a fine line between advocacy and dependency. We see all kinds of people walk through the door (men and women). Some are first time clients, some are long time users and have a long history with the centre. The other day I had a long time client ask me if I could type something up for them, because they weren't good at putting words on paper. When I suggested that they could try writing a draft that I could then edit, I met a lot of resistance. When I really refused to write it, I got yelled at and (according to my supervisor) super close to getting punched in the face. Legal advocates are not lawyers though - advocates help with legal issues but are really meant to help people through their own process. They're meant to build agency, but that's not always what happens. Sometimes clients who come in are so familiar with victimization that they become comfortable with other people fixing their situation. The last thing we want to do, though, is to enable further dependency. I've been asked to think about setting up a way to collect information on what our clients have gained through the legal advocacy experience - whether at the end of it they're better informed and knew why they went through the process they did. This is something that the Law Foundation would really like - any thoughts? We're thinking some sort of exit survey or meeting.
3. Often we have to work with other professionals - social workers, mental health workers, doctors. The other day we spent 2 hours putting sticky notes on a report because the doctor didn't fill it out properly. And I get why - the forms are long, repetitive, tedious, and take a lot of time out of their really busy day. Many of the doctors in town are great about it, but there are some who repeated lead to denied claims. I've been asked to come up with a workshop which can (hopefully) attract health care workers and teach them how to fill out the forms (for things like disability assessment for pensions or welfare) - this would hopefully reduce the time it takes them, and it would decrease the number of appeals we have to do. Thoughts?
4. Before moving here, this town was described to me as "redneck country" where "people shoot deer out their window". It's conservative. Really conservative. The men who work in the oilfields have a tight knit organization and they have a big presence this town. And I'm pretty awkward - my car is really conspicuous among the giant trucks everywhere. I've managed to find yoga, but even at the orientation for the Mother's Day 5k run/walk that I'm volunteering at tomorrow, it's mostly men in the oil and gas industry who are volunteering/organizing. Granted, they're pretty well suited for it (they have all these construction signs that they're using to mark the route) but I stick out for sure!
Overall, I could really use a weekend's rest! While on the one hand it makes me wonder what I should do with myself in a place where I don't know many people (ahhhh), on the other I've been napping, watching New Girl (featuring Zooey Deschanel - it's awesome) and loving it. Tomorrow morning it's up bright and early so I can go hold a stop sign at an intersection for the 5k race! I've been informed I have no legal authority to make anyone stop, but that I can try to be persuasive. Hahaha ...
Cheers,
Sharon
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