In 2000, Watered Gardens Ministries opened the doors of its small outreach to the poor in Joplin, MO. After having practiced “handout charity” for the first few years, co-founders James and Marsha Whitford realized that their good intentions had failed to bring about the impact they had hoped for – they were seeing very little change in the long-run situations of those with whom they engaged.

As a result, the outreach shifted to offering numerous programs that challenge individuals to be a part of their own solution through relationship and accountability. A primary aim has also been to walk alongside those in need to help them become free from dependency on government assistance.

Working Toward Freedom from Welfare and Dependency

As well-intentioned as government assistance might be, Watered Gardens Ministries operates upon the belief that welfare is problematic in numerous ways: 

• Individuals are complex, as are the reasons they are in poverty, and transactional programs cannot effectively dig in to determine the root causes. 
• It displaces “smaller, closer” entities that are more capable of identifying the root cause of their circumstances, such as family, friends, the church, and local resources. 
• Welfare is sourced from compulsion versus compassion from the “giver” and results in a lack of accountability within these government programs.
• We are all created to be producers and not just consumers, and government assistance creates dependency that perpetuates in one’s life, and even generationally.
• And, long-term dependence on government assistance is detrimental to people’s health and well-being (gotc.us/4AC7 and gotc.us/4AC8).

Because those at Watered Gardens are driven by the desire to see those with whom they come alongside break free from dependency to and into a more flourishing life, they have had to grapple with whether and when to verify that a client has given up government benefits to participate in its programs. Their approach might be instructive to how you design your own programs.

Lessons from Watered Gardens Ministries

Distinguishing Categories of Need 

As you consider whether and when to verify if a client is receiving government benefits, it’s important to understand the difference between categories of need. 

Relief is a need for emergency and temporary assistance in order to reduce immediate suffering within a true crisis. These relief situations might be caused by external factors, such as a natural disaster, a car wreck, or a sudden health condition. Often in our work, though, relief situations are caused (at least in part) by internal factors, those chronic to the individual such as addiction, mental health issues, or the inability to retain stable full-time employment. 

Development is the next step in helping the individual avoid any future need for relief, whether caused by internal or external factors, by targeting the conditions and causes that accompanied such a need even existing. This requires walking with the individual to accurately determine the underlying causes and strategically working to address them, such as building savings, strengthening social networks, finding stable employment, or receiving mental health or addiction interventions. Ultimately, the aim is for the individual to move closer to a holistically flourishing life.

In the Relief Context

When individuals come to Watered Gardens for relief, or emergency and temporary assistance, the ministry understands the need for their immediate needs to be tended to. Once that need is met, though, ministry staff work with the individual to understand the underlying causes of their circumstances.

Part of the process of one going from dependency to experiencing freedom comes from an individual grasping the detrimental role that welfare has played in perpetuating his circumstances – the “safety net” is less a net to catch him when he falls and more of a net in which he gets caught and cannot get free. So, during their stay in shelter, guests meet with the ministry’s care coordinators to begin building a relationship and identifying root causes. Guests are not only educated about the rationale behind getting free from welfare, but they’re helped to formulate a vision of a life of self-sufficiency, one without government assistance. 

As care coordination continues, guests are connected to alternatives to that assistance, and even helped to call the relevant agencies to decline continued benefits, if the guest so chooses. (Note that this often requires follow up with the guest by care coordinators due to the extended process the government requires to decline benefits – when you are tangled in a net, it takes some time and effort to get out and often requires the patient help of others.)  

In the Development Context

If a guest chooses, though, to transition into a process of development and enter Watered Gardens’ long-term men’s recovery program, Forge, they are required to give up all government assistance. Of course, they are not forced to give it up, but it is a requirement to enter the program. If they choose not to give up government benefits, they are choosing to not participate in the program. 

Once they enter the program, Forge acts as a bridge from that assistance to being self-sufficient. During the first two phases of the program, a member of Forge goes through education that includes spiritual formation along with life and job readiness training. As long as he fulfills the requirements in those first two phases, he receives what he needs for day-to-day life. In subsequent phases, Forge members transition to full-time employment and move to transitional housing, continuing the transition from dependency to self-sufficiency. 

To verify that Forge members have given up government assistance, Watered Gardens care coordinators will often be on speaker phone with the individual as he is declining further benefits. Of course, this is the individual’s choice – they’re not “under duress” of any sort. 

As mentioned previously, dropping benefits is rarely (if ever) immediate, so care coordinators make it a point to follow up with them to ensure they follow through with the paperwork sent later. There are a few incidents where members have “flown under the radar” – for a time. The truth eventually comes out during their time in the program. For example, if a Forge member gets sick, an appointment might be made by the ministry at the local Community Clinic, a privately funded charitable healthcare clinic. But, the Forge member might let it slip that he’d rather go to the hospital. Why? Because he still has Medicare or Medicaid.  

Ultimately, a trust relationship is central to the program, and it’s understood by Forge members that giving up their government benefits is a requirement because the program is intended to help them transition from dependency to freedom from welfare.

So, as you consider whether and when to verify government benefits, make sure to consider an individual’s category of need and the aim of your specific programs. If it’s intended to help an individual needing emergency and temporary assistance, consider educating him on the harm of dependency. However, if that client continues into a developmental program, continue to educate but consider walking alongside your client to transition off of government assistance. 

There is no way to come up with a system that forces an individual to give up government benefits – that goes against the nature of true charity that is individualized and relational, based on trust and choice on the part of the individual. However, the principles of true charity, practiced by Watered Gardens Ministries, can serve as a framework from which to guide discernment and establish operational procedures.