Vicki finds hope, resilience through Positive Lifestyle Program
BY KIRRALEE NICOLLE
When Vicki Searle was a child growing up in Western Australia, she wanted her parents’ attention. With a father whom she felt didn’t really have space for her in his life and a mother she struggled to get to know, life felt tumultuous. When her parents split, and her father remarried, she felt even more isolated.
“It shouldn’t affect me, but it affects me,” she says. “All I wanted to be is be loved, and my father sort of never showed that.”
Other details of her early life are patchy – her parents fighting while driving across the Nullarbor, her siblings – but much of it has been forgotten in the haze that sometimes accompanies difficult childhoods.
When Vicki, a former meat packer at abattoirs who has been on a disability pension for 25 years, first encountered The Salvation Army, she had just moved back to Western Australia after living with her partner in South Australia and then Tamworth, New South Wales. She and her partner had spent some time unable to find permanent housing.
“I know what it’s like to be out there and be homeless because I’ve been there myself, and it’s really, really not a good feeling,” Vicki says. “You are beside yourself. You’re cold; you’re hungry; it’s just not a good feeling.”
She had made her way back to be with her mother, who was gravely ill. Then COVID-19 hit. Vicki was living between homeless shelters and the streets. She then found herself at The Beacon, a Salvation Army crisis accommodation centre.
“When I was at The Beacon, I was always worried, stressed about not knowing where I was going to end up next,” she says.
Her case worker at The Beacon reassured her that things would be okay and that she would find permanent accommodation in Mandurah, on the southwest coast of Western Australia.
A positive step That’s exactly what happened. But it wasn’t the most transformational part of Vicki’s story. She was also put in touch with a caseworker from Mandurah Salvos, Miriam Batson.
“When I was at The Beacon, I heard about the Positive Lifestyle Program,” she says. “I asked Miriam if I could participate in it because I knew that I could relate to the content deeply.”
That was when Vicki met Lieutenant Crystal Lee, Corps Officer at Mandurah Salvos. Vicki had recently received news that her partner, who was still in Tamworth, was ill and unable to make the trip to Western Australia because of COVID-19. Vicki was at a low point.
“I used to always think the worst, and I was always hard on myself,” Vicki says. “I was always crying, drained and not able to do daily activities.”
“I have gained tools and skills to live life positively. I can now say even though things are still challenging, this too will pass and don’t give up giving up. I can do this.”
Crystal helped Vicki journey through The Salvation Army’s eight-module Positive Lifestyle Program course, which assists clients in facing the struggles that might be holding them back from achieving positive changes in their lives, including depression, anger, loneliness, grief, and loss.
“Since I have completed the PLP course, I have more resilience and confidence in myself,” Vicki says. “I began to learn to think positively by having a gratitude list every week.
“I have gained tools and skills to live life positively. I can now say even though things are still challenging, this too will pass and don’t give up giving up. I can do this.”
“Don’t give up giving up” is a phrase which means a lot to Vicki. Crystal says that for Vicki, it means she can keep going, no matter what life throws her way.
Vicki, who faces ongoing health needs, is now considering volunteering for The Salvation Army in Mandurah. Crystal says she thinks Vicki would be a good fit for a role that involves talking to others who are doing it tough, as Vicki has learned so much through her own journey. Vicki recently shared her experience with the Positive Lifestyle Program at a Sunday service at Mandurah Salvos.
“I’d like to give back to the Salvation Army [for] what they’ve done for me,” she says.
For more information on The Salvation Army’s Positive Lifestyle Program, click here
