Giants and foxes that 'eat you up' - and the world of work.

(The following represents Nigel Fenner's personal views, rather than those of Hertfordshire PASS.)

We've been running a Job Forum over the summer holidays for young disabled people to explore the barriers to work they face and how these might be overcome. Given it's been holidays we've tried to make the sessions fun, including having a 'media' theme throughout. I want to share experiences we had at two of the sessions.

At one session Mat Fraser joined us; Mat is a well known actor, musician, writer and performance artist. Following the usual dialogue we have at every Job Forum session for visitors, where Mat was asked to share his work story in response to questions from the young disabled people present, we asked what we might focus on for the role play planned for the afternoon. The question I posed to the group 'might we focus on a 'barrier to work' that Mat experienced and shared with us, or might we focus on something else?' appeared straightforward but the answer 'let's do Jack and the Beanstalk', less so, but because we try very hard to be user-driven, we went for it.

What unfolded was a remarkable unplanned piece of Forum Theatre ( - which Mat introduced us to, and led). First we retold the story of Jack and the Beanstalk and explored what modern day metaphors the characters and key props represented in terms of young disabled people searching for work. For example the beans represented qualifications, the beanstalk represented the ladder Jack needed to climb to get a job, the giant - a difficult manager interviewing Jack for a job, Jack's mum - the 'parent trap', the gold - a job, and so on. We then wrote a basic script and those present put themselves forward to act the parts. Mat directed, including periodically stopping the 'action' to ask the audience what might Jack do or say in relation to the predicament he was in, in keeping with the methods of Forum Theatre.

There were many fantastic performances, and excellent insights, however there is only one insight I want to focus on here. Early on in our unpacking of the story of Jack and the Beanstalk, the young person who originally made the suggestion to use this story, wanted reassurance that there would be no real giants in our production because they really frightened him, and that our focus was to be on work only. In the context of what we were doing this was key, because I was getting somewhat concerned how, in entering the world of fantasy, we were also going to keep our 'feet on the ground'. I think we succeeded and there was much learning by all.

At our next session, a week later, we planned to use art to communicate the barriers to work we all face and how these are overcome. We had a large lump of clay, watercolours, coloured and patterned tissue paper, wax crayons, old magazines to cut up etc, and after a couple of hours gave opportunity for everybody (staff included) to each describe their creation.

At the time one piece of art grabbed my attention above all the others; it was of a gingerbread man made out of clay, with its creator being unsure why he had made it. So there and then, as a group, we retold the story, and were amazed that it mirrored the struggle many of the young people, in fact most of us, have in becoming independent from our mums and dads. We then talked about what happened to the gingerbread man, having left his mum and dad, and realised he was eaten by the fox. This begged the question 'what does the fox represent in our efforts to get a job?', and it became apparent that for some, the fox represents the job that 'eats you up'. Given the nervousness and lack of confidence of the creator of the gingerbread man, this was no surprise.

At this same session I made a clay model too, however it took a number of weeks before I realised how significant it was.

I started by making a larger-than-life figure set behind an altar on which I ( - represented by a much smaller figure) was making my offerings. This larger-than-life figure represented powerful individuals (managers, teachers etc) in my past I have had to cow-tow to. My experience today was represented by a dynamic figure turned away from the altar, actively pursuing some brightly coloured pieces of tissue paper, representing more fulfilling goals in relation to my work.
I didn't use the word 'giant' to describe my larger-than-life figure at the time but now I realise that is exactly what he is. Maybe I didn't say 'giant' because I felt I was above fairy tales, but now, given the fantastic insights we all had working through Jack and the Beanstalk, and the Gingerbread man I realise how timeless and wise they are - to us all. And the wisdom is not just with the fairy tales but the two young people who introduced them to us all.

(Since this blog was written, the Jack and the Beanstalk session, and the art session have been talked about more often than one might have expected and I'm not sure why, given our focus on overcoming barriers to work. This morning (2nd January 2010) however I came across a slip of paper in a management book I often dip into on which I had written "...... pictures operate as vehicles of human experience" a quote lifted from the chapter 'The Recovery of Meaning'. Given I feel exploring human experience is vital in the work that we do ( - see my 30th June 2009 blog: 'everyday experience at work: vital to disabled young people exploring the world of work') there is clearly a link between our art sessions and overcoming barriers to work. Not sure precisely what this is yet but I can feel another blog in the offing.)