The Compass by Night

Kirkens Korshær has an incredibly broad and skilled group of employees who go to work every day and do their best for socially vulnerable people. The professionalism is high, and the human beings is in focus, whether you are employed in the child & family supporting social work, cook in a day shelter, sit as a counselor or something completely different. In this article, you get an insight into the everyday life of two employees at the emergency shelter of The Compass in Copenhagen's North West Quarter - their work, their values and what drives them when they take on a job where vulnerability and destitution are part of everyday life.

A difficult beginning

Both Daniela and Giuseppe have both experienced how difficult it can be to enter the Danish system as a foreigner who wants to live and work here. Giuseppe made use of the help from friends and from networks with other Italians in Denmark, and even stayed with a friend for a month and a half so he could focus on establishing himself here.

Daniela did not plan to come to Denmark but ended up here partly because of the financial crisis. She came here three months before her family to find work but ran into some challenges quite similar to what our foreign users often face. It was very difficult to create a NemKonto, in order to be paid by her employee - a well-known problem for many foreigners who visits Kirkens Korshær. When Daniela approached the migrant office in Denmark, the employees did not know how to help her. Only because Daniela knows her rights as an EU citizen and had enough resources and knowledge to speak up for herself, they could not get away with rejecting her.

Giuseppe Peleo and Daniela Botti came to Denmark from Italy four and nine years ago respectively.

Not all people have the resources to take up the fight when the system fails, but Daniela and Giuseppe see their own experiences of entering the Danish system as a tool to help and understand the people they meet in their work.

Building relations during the night

At the emergency shelter in Kompasset the employees meet both people who are mentally and somatically ill, and who are also under enormous pressure to continue earning money so they can support their families in their home country. They are rejected by almost all other social services and often end up in Kompasset, where a warm bed at night and counseling during the day can help form the basis for them to take the necessary steps further in life.

Some days there are people who do not come in at all in the winter, as they can either be experienced as being too noisy or rash – often an expression of their unhappy life situation. It's something Daniela and Giuseppe describes as the hardest part of their work. When they can't let people in for the night, but find themselves forced to take care of the other guests, their colleagues and themselves. A tough but unfortunately sometimes necessary decision in a job like theirs. Here, however, they always try to contact other night shelters, to explore the possibility of the person in question being accommodated elsewhere this night.

During the day, Kompasset provides advice, meets basic needs and build relations, but it is also carried out at night. In fact, there is often more time for those who wish to have the conversation and presence of the employees. Daniela and Giuseppe are in general personally invested in their work and believe that it is difficult to be otherwise. As Daniela describes it:

"How can you do that without loving them? It's impossible not to get involved. You see some of them getting through, making it, some others struggling, and you're just waiting for them to find the right time to get out of their addiction or to choose to change their life. And we're there and they need to see that we believe in them, otherwise you condemn them. "

Giuseppe agrees with Daniela, and they see it as a gift for themselves as resourceful individuals to be able to use the human resources they have to help other people. It's a big responsibility to have so much weight on your shoulders and important to be able to put that weight away in your spare time. But they are motivated by helping a group of people who have no one else at this current moment in their life. They do what they can to make guests feel like human beings rather than a burden. They meet them with presence, care and respect.

The importance of good collegiality

Working with such vulnerable people is hard work, and it is alpha and omega that those who are at work trust each other and know that they can count on each other. They are constantly learning from each other and see a great benefit in developing professionally and as human beings – which also happens when they are at work with colleagues they have not been on duty with before. As Giuseppe says:

"You always have a special bond to your coworkers. Look after each other, be open and honest to each other. Sometimes you need to be able to read each other by just making eye contact (...) this year I work with two I haven't worked with before, and I like to steal from my colleagues - work techniques and their way of being - and it's amazing."

They find the same support in their leader, who always has their back in situations where the pressure is rising. They are comfortable with him, and he is there when they need it – more or less twenty-four-seven in the winter when the emergency shelters are open. At the same time, he is the link when the day's and night's employees need to communicate with each other about special challenges.

With strong collegiality and a night manager who is there to support them, the foundation is in place in order to provide the best possible help and support to a group of people who need it so much. It is presence, care and respect for both our employees, our volunteers and our guests.