I just wanted to mention an example. I was working with some families who were living in non-profit housing in a small community. They were being persecuted by their neighbours because they were welfare bums, blah, blah, blah. They told me the only way they could live comfortably in that community and be accepted would be if they were working.
This is where I first got really keen on the social enterprise idea, because work is about so much more than money. Of course, it is about money, but it's also about how we define ourselves. The fact that you have a job means that somebody needs you. You have responsibility. It's all about responsibility.
The upshot of that was that we started a business. It was called Born Again J.E.A.N.S. We collected old clothes, and these ladies made new things out of them. We ran it for about six years. It never supported them fully, but we managed to cobble together employment programs and stuff. It was primarily funded by my mother, actually. In the end, two families exited the welfare system totally. They have never been back. They would die before they would go back. Their children went to school and finished high school. The spinoffs were awesome.
This is why I'm really so enthusiastic about this approach. It is not the therapeutic, “Oh, you poor thing, here, have this free and this free.” People have to be valued. When they're not valued, when they have no responsibility, when nobody needs them, that's when they get into trouble. That's what I've seen, in my experience.