By Alex Mills, Project Officer for Opening Doors – A Community Leadership Program For Social Inclusion

Adelaide, 2009. Colleen, a lady in her early eighties is referred to Wesley Uniting Care because she is experiencing considerable depression. She had been the primary carer for her partner, who recently passed away. Grieving for the loss of her husband, she felt lonely and useless.

Colleen received a visit from Barb, a community worker, whose job it was to refer Colleen to services and programs which could help her deal with her depression. As they sat and chatted, Barb noticed a series of beautiful, hand-knitted tea cosies on Colleen’s table.

Barb began to tell Colleen about T-Bar, a trendy tea house that had recently opened up in Adelaide. She asked if she could borrow one of Colleen’s creations to show them, and she agreed. Not only did T-Bar love Colleen’s tea cosies, they agreed to place some in the store for sale – and did they sell!

Soon enough, Colleen’s tea cosies were in high demand, and they were selling quicker than she could knit them. “This is well and good”, said Colleen, “but I don’t really need the money. Is there a group at Uniting Care which could use the funds?”
Barb mentioned a project being run by women with acquired brain injuries, who were working together on a quilt. Each panel of the quilt represented one of the women’s stories – but they needed money for materials to complete it. Colleen was so inspired by their work that she donated the proceeds of her sales to the project.

Colleen’s creations were in such high demand that she couldn’t keep up. Barb put the word out amongst some of Wesley’s other clients; older women who were experiencing social isolation. They hit it off immediately, and decided to get together once a month to knit and swap patterns. They decided to call themselves ‘The Cosy Club.’

A year later, the quilt had been completed with proceeds from The Cosy Club, a book and a documentary had been made about its creation, Colleen and her friends were now in regular contact with the acquired brain injury group, and Colleen was asked to present at a National Conference in Sydney on social inclusion and building community.

Colleen later told Barb she had gone from having nothing to do – from feeling useless – to not having enough hours in the day.
We can imagine how easily Colleen’s story could have turned out differently. If she had been referred to a service or a program, or treated as someone with ‘issues’ that ‘needed to be fixed.’ The simple act of recognising a talent in Colleen – a strength and a passion – completely transformed her life.

Too often we get caught in the pattern of ‘needs assessment.’ Diagnosing peoples’ challenges and deficiencies, offering our expertise and wisdom on how they might be fixed.

Colleen’s story shares a simple yet paradigm shifting lesson. By focussing on her strengths and her talents – by celebrating her gifts – not only is she now living a vibrant, full, meaningful life, but the issues she faced have been completely addressed in the process.

Some truly wonderful things happen when we focus on our strengths rather than our deficiencies. Be it a community, a family, or one busy woman in Adelaide with some very popular tea cosies.

(with thanks to Wesley Uniting Care, Colleen and Barb, and the late Ted Smeaton for introducing me to their inspiring story)