10 International Journal of Cultic Studies ■ Vol. 8, 2017
She was saying to me: “You know what
I love about this place? The best thing?
You don’t have to worry about money.
You don’t have to worry about any
bills—I haven’t paid a bill in 10 years.”
Narratives highlighted the adjustment problems
that had been created by families leaving the
community without any financial resources.
Many accounts reflected themes of bitterness
associated with the permanent loss of resources
to Centrepoint, with participants talking about
how their parents had taken all their resources to
the community, and how their inheritance had
been stolen.
Narratives also suggested that Centrepoint
provided poor role models for the individual
goal orientation required in the world outside of
Centrepoint:
There’s been so much role playing
missing, like simple things like no one
had savings accounts, parents didn’t
earn money, no one owned a car, no one
paid a mortgage.
But in some accounts, it was not a shift in values
and priorities that interfered with the
participants’ capacity to take care of themselves
financially. Some participants emphasized the
emotional damage inflicted by child abuse and
manipulation at Centrepoint. One participant
who told of experiencing years of sexual abuse
described how this had affected her ability to
work:
Probably around my early twenties
when I sort of started to really realize
the cost that I paid. ...And like, that’s
sort of like a time in your life when you
should be launching into life, you know,
getting your career and all that. And I
was just like literally dead in the water
for about 10 years. I couldn’t. I managed
some jobs, but it was just, a very, very
intense thing to have to go through.
Illicit drug use was described as being common
at Centrepoint, and many participants spoke
about how they had continued using these. Some
narratives represented this as a habit, while
others described it as a way of dealing with
significant emotional distress related to abusive
experiences at Centrepoint. Many narratives
linked drug use with other stresses and described
how it had had negative consequences on
participants’ ability to pursue lasting or
meaningful work.
In contrast to negative themes that emphasised
the absence of resources, role modelling and the
impact of emotional trauma, there were accounts
that suggested that the communal lifestyle had
given participants greater capacities in relation
to employment than those of their peers.
Participants described how the community had
fostered a work ethic, and how involvement in
collective work had given participants
confidence in their abilities that they used to
good effect the outside community:
And I love working. I started just
starting a new job and probably I’m the
youngest one there, and most people
have [specific] qualifications. I haven’t
done anything. So I, you know, I
attribute stuff like that to the
community. ..I’m not scared to take on
I’ll go for the biggest challenge. I never
set my sights low. And that stuff they
always taught you at the community is
to be who you are, to not be scared of
anything.
Narrative themes related to livelihood
highlighted participants’ bitterness about the loss
of family resources to the Centrepoint
community. In addition, accounts suggested
some difficulties in adjusting from the
communal resource arrangements and beliefs at
Centrepoint to the individual achievement
orientation of the broader society. Participants
described the absence of role models, recognised
to be important to developing financial
management skills (Flouri &Buchanan, 2002).
Traumatic experiences such as sexual abuse at
Centrepoint were also described as impacting
negatively on participants’ ability to support
themselves effectively. But in contrast to these
themes of disadvantage, some narratives referred
to the work ethic and a sense of self-confidence
fostered at Centrepoint as being valuable in their
work adjustment. The latter would seem
consistent with the role of self-efficacy in
accounting for career success (Anderson &Betz,
She was saying to me: “You know what
I love about this place? The best thing?
You don’t have to worry about money.
You don’t have to worry about any
bills—I haven’t paid a bill in 10 years.”
Narratives highlighted the adjustment problems
that had been created by families leaving the
community without any financial resources.
Many accounts reflected themes of bitterness
associated with the permanent loss of resources
to Centrepoint, with participants talking about
how their parents had taken all their resources to
the community, and how their inheritance had
been stolen.
Narratives also suggested that Centrepoint
provided poor role models for the individual
goal orientation required in the world outside of
Centrepoint:
There’s been so much role playing
missing, like simple things like no one
had savings accounts, parents didn’t
earn money, no one owned a car, no one
paid a mortgage.
But in some accounts, it was not a shift in values
and priorities that interfered with the
participants’ capacity to take care of themselves
financially. Some participants emphasized the
emotional damage inflicted by child abuse and
manipulation at Centrepoint. One participant
who told of experiencing years of sexual abuse
described how this had affected her ability to
work:
Probably around my early twenties
when I sort of started to really realize
the cost that I paid. ...And like, that’s
sort of like a time in your life when you
should be launching into life, you know,
getting your career and all that. And I
was just like literally dead in the water
for about 10 years. I couldn’t. I managed
some jobs, but it was just, a very, very
intense thing to have to go through.
Illicit drug use was described as being common
at Centrepoint, and many participants spoke
about how they had continued using these. Some
narratives represented this as a habit, while
others described it as a way of dealing with
significant emotional distress related to abusive
experiences at Centrepoint. Many narratives
linked drug use with other stresses and described
how it had had negative consequences on
participants’ ability to pursue lasting or
meaningful work.
In contrast to negative themes that emphasised
the absence of resources, role modelling and the
impact of emotional trauma, there were accounts
that suggested that the communal lifestyle had
given participants greater capacities in relation
to employment than those of their peers.
Participants described how the community had
fostered a work ethic, and how involvement in
collective work had given participants
confidence in their abilities that they used to
good effect the outside community:
And I love working. I started just
starting a new job and probably I’m the
youngest one there, and most people
have [specific] qualifications. I haven’t
done anything. So I, you know, I
attribute stuff like that to the
community. ..I’m not scared to take on
I’ll go for the biggest challenge. I never
set my sights low. And that stuff they
always taught you at the community is
to be who you are, to not be scared of
anything.
Narrative themes related to livelihood
highlighted participants’ bitterness about the loss
of family resources to the Centrepoint
community. In addition, accounts suggested
some difficulties in adjusting from the
communal resource arrangements and beliefs at
Centrepoint to the individual achievement
orientation of the broader society. Participants
described the absence of role models, recognised
to be important to developing financial
management skills (Flouri &Buchanan, 2002).
Traumatic experiences such as sexual abuse at
Centrepoint were also described as impacting
negatively on participants’ ability to support
themselves effectively. But in contrast to these
themes of disadvantage, some narratives referred
to the work ethic and a sense of self-confidence
fostered at Centrepoint as being valuable in their
work adjustment. The latter would seem
consistent with the role of self-efficacy in
accounting for career success (Anderson &Betz,
