One of the Chaplaincy’s aims is:
‘To explore and witness to the human capacity for creative and recreative activity as a way of expressing life and seeking its purpose.’

Over the years, perhaps the Chaplaincy’s primary response to this aim has been IMPASSE. Its origins lie in the late 1960’s, when Teesside’s heavy industries were in decline and it was clear that unemployment on a vast scale was here to stay.The negative implications of this situation for human creativity were immense. The Chaplaincy’s first initiative was therefore to establish exactly what those implications were by listening to people without paid employment. It was they who were largely responsible for identifying six basic human needs:

The opportunity to make a positive contribution to the community

A sense of personal identity and self-worth

Friendship

The chance to realize creative potential

A rhythm of life

Money - for safety, security and survival

 

What also became clear was that society was so organized that people had become accustomed to these needs being met largely through paid work. Those for whom paid work was an increasingly unlikely prospect therefore faced needs far wider than a lack of cash. The Chaplaincy worked with them to develop ways in which life could have purpose and meaning with or without paid employment. The name given to the enterprise was IMPASSE - an ironic name. In society we seemed to have reached an impasse. Nationally, politicians seemed to have no answers. Locally, on the other hand, people were prepared to try a possible new way forward.

IMPASSE remains a philosophy, rather than a programme. It adopts a bi-focal approach. It accepts that, in the short-term, individuals have personal needs for fulfilment and creative growth that must be addressed. But it also recognizes the need for long-term change. Society itself has to be challenged to find new patterns of living in community, which enable people to realize their full potential, whether or not they have paid employment. For over twenty years, from bases across the North East (with one also in Scotland), the IMPASSE philosophy took tangible form. Primary figures in the partnership, which made this possible were, first and foremost, those without paid employment themselves. But other individuals and organizations were drawn together in the exploration - local councillors, local authority officers, Councils of Churches, representatives of the voluntary sector and those responsible for government training schemes.

Though there were IMPASSE buildings containing well-equipped workshops, they were not ends in themselves. They were not centres for the unemployed, but bases from which the work and philosophy could move out into the community. IMPASSE released resources and the resources released people. One special example was Chris and Stuart Newman, two brothers who built a catamaran at IMPASSE. They then learnt navigation and sailed to the West Indies. For them this was not only a personal challenge, but also a symbol of everything that people without paid employent could achieve.

A less spectacular, but equally profound example, was Kit. So depressed by unemployment that he had almost to be pushed into the building by his wife, he found his way into the woodworkshop. A redundant steelworker, he was surprised to find he had a natural aptitude with wood. Soon he was turning out furniture to the extent that Social Security officers questioned whether he was operating a small industry! He was able to prove that all his work was either for personal use or as gifts for people. Examples are the tables he made for an elderly woman, disabled by arthritis, and for his daughter, who was setting up home. In relating the experience, this is how he explained his true motivation: ‘Before I came to IMPASSE I didn’t want to get up in the morning. Now I can’t wait to get here, I have so much to do and so many people to see. I’m so excited, too, because I feel as if I’ve been wasting my life on metal, a dead thing, now that I’ve discovered what I can do with wood - a living material. My skills are even saving me money and, what’s more, they have given me a new, respected place in the community. People come to me for help.’ Without knowing it, he had expressed the six basic needs which discussions had identified years before - and how they were being met through IMPASSE.

New ways to pursue the IMPASSE philosophy are being explored. Recently, a Chaplaincy-sponsored research student at Durham University has been exploring IMPASSE in the context of various economic theories. Meanwhile, the Chaplaincy constantly seeks to commend IMPASSE more widely.

For further information read Impasse- a Possible Way Forward