Face to face with the Public Centre for Social Welfare (OCMW)
Face to face with the Public Centre for Social Welfare (OCMW): When dignity is at stake.
The ongoing crisis in Brussels’ Public Centres for Social Welfare (OCMWs) is intensifying tensions between beneficiaries and social workers. In addition to politicised actions by civil society actors, there is a pressing need for calm and respectful encounters between Brussels residents receiving social assistance, social workers, and their supervisors. What is currently missing from the actions being undertaken is the direct presence of the lived experience and experiential knowledge of the key actors whose dignity is at stake. What is also lacking are calm, ritualised practices in which the fractured dignity of both beneficiaries and social workers can be acknowledged and processed in a connecting and meaningful way.
Building on the previous research project “Turning the vulnerability of Brussels residents on social assistance”, and the methodology developed therein around digital storytelling, reading workshops, and expo-dialogues, this project aims to address the current gap through two clusters of research questions:
- What is the connecting potential of this methodology when beneficiaries of social assistance and OCMW social workers take on an active role together? And how can this connecting potential be improved? (Agogic research question)
- What ritual meanings emerge from these methodologies throughout the course of the action research? And how can these methodologies help restore the (fractured) human dignity of beneficiaries and social workers? (Hermeneutic research question)
The project seeks to answer these questions through approximately eight expo-dialogues, each examined for their restorative, ritual dimension. Evaluation will be carried out through reflections by co-researchers involved in the action research, and through focus groups with other participants of the expo-dialogues. Insights gained will be integrated into the content and approach of subsequent expo-dialogues.
The exhibition materials and applied methodology will be partially made available on the Insjalet website and in a bilingual toolbox, allowing other organisations to benefit from the acquired know-how.
Meet the researcher
Our partners
Collectif Cartach and le CAPS, two Brussels-based collectives of living wage recipients
Collectif de Formation de Société (CFS), a French-speaking civil society organization in Sint-Gillis that focuses on permanent training of socio-professionals and supports and guides group work with Brussels residents in vulnerable positions (documentless beneficiaries)