This is a place for our participants to share their expertise, but as the person responsible for the section on participant stories, empowerment and inclusion, I need to lead by example.
I have worked as a journalist and communicator for many years and will hopefully get to interview many Lumena participants. I also have many years of experience of exclusion, uncertain finances, unemployment, lack of coordinated support and much more. Much of it is still going on today. But I see it as a double competence and a reason why it led to a job in the project.
A few years ago, my future was very uncertain. I was getting further and further away from the labour market, my voice was getting quieter and eventually I was a shadow of my former self.
My voice grew quieter and quieter and eventually I was a shadow of my former self.
After three years of sick leave, I ended up in what is known as the enhanced cooperation programme, where authorities and health care provide coordinated support. I was to be "rehabilitated" and offered job training. The coordinated support did not materialise.
My husband Leonard had to help me find a place to train for a job, I couldn't do it myself. It wasn't that I wasn't "motivated", it was that I had so little self-confidence that I didn't think anyone would take me on.
I have met many people along my journey who gave up, fell out of the system, fell into oblivion - call it what you will.
Without the support of those around me, I probably would have given up and accepted 100% sickness benefit. I have met many people along my journey who gave up, fell out of the system, fell into oblivion - call it what you will. Yet I am fortunate. Many have no SGI, many have no network, many have no husband who can argue, many do not understand all the papers, laws and rules.
I finally get to use my profession and my life story for something important and constructive.
I was then given a SIUS counsellor to help me find employment. After a few weeks, she screamed on the phone that I was too fragile and had no rights. She closed my case. Of course, she was wrong. The work training centre offered me a position as a researcher in an ESF project. I didn't have a single sick day.
And now I'm here to use my profession and experience for something constructive. This is where I take my revenge.
But living in the present is difficult for those of us traumatised by our life journeys.
But living in the present is difficult for those of us traumatised by our life journeys. I must always have a plan a, b and c. Because even this project will end one day. I'm afraid that one day I might need to receive "support" again. Getting "help" from a SIUS consultant who screams that I have no rights or having to sit with a resigned rehabilitation consultant who in the end can't coordinate either. For those of you who have never experienced it, I can say: the stripes never come off and for many the dream is permanent employment.
Only then can we breathe a sigh of relief.
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