There are moments when everything aligns
Even in situations we thought were hopeless.
The person gets moving. Starts making steps. Begins to take back some power over their life.
Domicile registration, income applications, a detox program request, housing search.
Momentum is building.
And then... we wait.
For the detox program’s response. For the CPAS to approve the rental guarantee.
Administrative or technical steps — but in reality, they leave the person hanging.
In that waiting time, everything can unravel.
And there are moments when everything collapses…
Substance use returns, the connection becomes strained, health declines.
Sometimes violence surfaces. Aggression, silence too.
That feeling that everything has to start over, when we were so close to making it...
It's hard for the team too.
We absorb it and we also learn to set boundaries, to protect ourselves.
Because the system is violent. And we can’t control everything.
These moments remind us of the fragile balance of our work.
They show how easily things can fall apart. But also, how sometimes — against all odds — they hold.
And us? We stay. We stay so that this “sometimes”, this possibility, gets a real chance.
There are moments when it breaks. And others when, unexpectedly, it holds together.
And we stay — no matter what.
– Story of Mathilde, social worker in Liège