WHEN PEOPLE JUST DON'T WANT TO WORK
There are a lot of reasons people choose not to work. There is an innate conflict between people who see culture as an excuse for not working and the people who practice their culture and still work at a nine to five job. It is my belief that there is nothing in our history that says we should let somebody else take care of our families. Our tradition is full of taking responsiibility for providing for our family every day. One hundred years ago, we did it by hunting, in the modern world we do it by going to work every day.
For me, it is hard to accept a person will not work and therefore provide for their family and choose to instead go to so-called cultural activities and leave their family to subsist on social programs. Responsibility for self and family are part of our culture.
In the same way, I have heard tribal members say that they care about their children more than white people because they stay home with a sick child, or miss work to go to their child's events. I don't necessarily accept that argument. Those people who go to work earn money to pay for all of their children, to buy them shoes, pay for a good education for them. They are giving their children a role model of a working person who provides for their family. I am not saying that working an 80-hour week and ignoring your family is the way to go. On the other hand, skipping work doesn't necessarily make you a good person either.
WHAT TO DO:
Hamre suggests that a letter stating that the client can be dropped from the program for non-compliance can work wonders. This may be so in a few cases. As we mentioned under "transition" it may come as a shock to a person accustomed to special education to find out that they can be dropped from the program. Unlike Hamre, though, we haven't found that it 'works wonders'. What we have found is that it saves you time and frustration and saves your program money.
You cannot help everyone. Sometimes your program is being used to pay for someone's car to be repaired, clothes for job interviews, new glasses so they can read job applications and - guess what- that person has no interest in getting a job because they are comfortable right where they are, living at home with their mom or girlfriend/ boyfriend paying the bills.
For insight from some young people on why they are working and their friends are not, check out the Spirit Lake Consulting forum topic in the Disability Issues area "Getting older and no job".
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