Yes, but — Engaging while in crisis:

Journal Entry

When I came out of the workshop, I saw J. hanging around the lobby of the Lifeskills Centre. She had obviously just come out of the shower.
Me: “What’s up?” (after the usual hug).
J: Oh, I’m waiting for my laundry”.
Me: “I thought you had washing machines at your place?”
J: “We’re not there anymore. Me and G. have been living on the street for a month”
This would not be an unusual story, except that J. is an active volunteer in a number of organizations, and in particular was very involved in this year’s “Learner to Learner”^{Footnote 11} project at WISH, in which the women distributed care packages to other women on the street. So she was doing outreach to women while she herself was in need.

This story is typical. Many people I work with are both active in organizations (the “engagement” stage) and homeless or dealing with some kind of crisis related to drugs or violence. J. was not only an active volunteer in the community, but learning how to make videos and other digital media. This does fit with what Murray and Ferguson’s finding that people cycle back and forth between stages of foundation building, but J.’s story conflicts with the idea that they can only begin to expand their horizons once the means of survival are in place and with Trumpener’s recommendation that “ learners have a stable living environment for at least 45 days” (Trumpener, 1997: 54)