Lay councillors face the stress of the homeless in Brussels

During the internship we tried to get under the skin of a lay counselor by acting out his role with the homeless and with some of the staff. We wanted to gain experience in counseling the homeless. On this occasion we interviewed fifteen homeless people and fifteen area agents. The aim of the questions we asked them was to find out about the possibility of providing moral support to the homeless. During this fieldwork we asked participants who met our criterion of whether they were familiar with the lay counselor and his services to tell us what they thought the lay counselor's contribution to services for the homeless would be. What's more by answering questions we had about situations that seemed difficult to us we realized how useful lay moral assistance can be for the homeless.