A personalised approach in activation. Workfare volunteers’ experiences with activation practitioners

Abstract

In activation work – supporting jobless people to perform activities that are supposed to lead them back to paid work–a personalised approach is deemed crucial. What a personalised approach entails, however, remains unclear. In this article, we try to further develop the notion of a personalised approach in activation work, by analysing Dutch workfare volunteers’ experiences with activation. Our interviews show that a personalised approach appears as a process with three stages. In the first stage, personalised means paying attention to welfare clients’ personal histories, particularly their ‘violated life story’. In the second stage, personalised means being sensitive to the new reality of them being volunteers. In the third stage, personalised means paying attention to the future, especially to the prospect of paid work. Our findings contribute to the theorisation of a personalised approach in activation work to which time turns out to be a crucial dimension.