I Guess....

I guess this isn’t a record that the good people from the Guinness World Book of Records will recognize, but even for Craig’s Table this is a turnaround world class record. 

I was invited to a “Lunch and Learn” session today for one of the providers to the workers compensation system, it was a wonderful hour of talking about Craig’s Table and all the different ways we work around the participants needs and what can be achieved when the outcome is focussed on rather than the restrictions lived within. At the end of the session one of the people present said that he had placed a participant at Craig’s Table and he had “seen” first hand the absolute change in the person he had placed at Craig’s Table.

The provider had tried to engage the placement in a number of things but was not able to garner interest in any of the options; he had said to “go have a look” at Craig’s Table.

Within hours the participant had changed, he had become focussed he had a direction and is now working towards the outcome he has set for himself.

I was asked why the participants gain more from Craig’s Table than any other program, because it is far more than just the training program that form the base of the concept, it is far more than the community programs that are run at Craig’s Table, it is far more than anything even I can attempt to explain. My belief is that Craig’s Table works as it does because we meet the participants where they are, we trust and we respect them as friends who are joining us on a journey to their tomorrow. We pull them forward and support them at the same time, we understand their fears and know all their angst. We have lived all of it, we understand it and we have come out the other side stronger for the challenges. 

We celebrate everything no matter how small, because life needs to be celebrated, achievements and overcoming deserves a celebration. 

We welcome tears and we laugh a lot, we play jokes on each other and we just sit in silent strength with each other.
There is a resilience that comes from the collective power of contagious hope and a drive that can never be measured it can only be felt to be accepted even though I feel it every day, I still am in awe of it all.

To understand the participants and the collective is not easy at all, we have such an eclectic mix of people, we have brick layers, we have aged care provider we have car detailers, we have bar managers and we have fast food workers and so the list goes on.

We have physical injuries we have mental health injuries and we have sexual assault injuries. Yet these people quite unbeknown to each other pre-Craig’s Table have formed into a strength that feeds into the energy within Craig’s Table.

So I am never surprised when a new possible participant comes in to see what it is that Craig’s Table can offer that they also want to be a part of something very unique, but even I was surprised to hear that this participant went from not wanting to do anything to wanting to be at Craig’s Table in just a few wee hours.

As one of the participants told me during the week she now has courage that she didn’t have before to speak up and say things she has kept within herself for years and the courage to make friends without needing to fear rejection. She has a reason to get up in the morning and people who are always happy to see her.

That turn around took just 5 weeks. 

Craig’s Table is nothing like anything ever experienced it has to be seen and felt to be understood. One of our trainers said that before he came to Craig’s Table he had an intellectual understanding of Craig’s Table, but nothing prepared him for the experience of Craig’s Table or the joy he takes with him at the end of the day. 

Given this trainers background is from the police department, joy is not a word he would have used all that often so to hear him describe the feeling of joy travelling with him was again something I didn’t expect.

At the end of each week there is an interesting feeling that I can only describe as expectation of what the coming week will hold, there are hugs and laughter as the participants leave on Friday afternoons, there are lots of “see you Monday” and the knowing that if needs be there are phone numbers exchanged so if a hiccup happens over the weekend a “friend” is never far away.

Then there is silence within Craig’s Table, it is a satisfied silence of a week of gains and a week of real achievements and a week of lives coming “home”

To say that I am proud of everyone at Craig’s Table is an understatement, I live in the glow of each of them, I know their hopes and their dreams and I know that as a trusted partner on their path just how much of a privilege it all is.
It may sound odd to some but to me it makes so much sense, one of the participants who will graduate from Craig’s Table on the 6^th July told me that she will now celebrate 2 birthdays each year, her actual birthday and her Craig’s Table birthday- it really doesn’t get much better than that. 

Yours in service
Rosemary

www.craigstable.net.au

rosemary@craigstable.net.au

SKYPE Rosemary2412 

15^th June 2018