There is a brilliant youtube channel (Soft White Underbelly) where the guy interviews skid row drug addicts, etc., and the same thing is evident there: even if people are given free rooms, free help, free rehab, most of them reject it for the quick shot to live that daily Nirvana. It is a sad fact that had work is looked down upon if the simple option is available.
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Oh yeah, up in Johannesburg we had a guy with one leg standing at the robots begging and I offered him a free PC training course that our charity was running for un-employed persons.
He refused, but I kept on trying and eventually he sat me down to tell me what was going on. They were a ring of 7 guys and 3 ladies that stood at different lights every day. At the end of the day, they would all pool their incomes to buy food and drugs and this was their lifestyle.
So then who needs to work?
True right? We often think these people are there due to circumstances beyond their control (and there are many such cases), but sometimes it is a choice. I am going into therapy (as I said in another comment, philosophical counselling) and dealing with people who actively make the choice to stay in bad situations is not easy to work with. I am sure you have countless such stories.
It is indeed about the mindset of the people my friend. Many are raised in poverty and they are raised to think that it's all that there is. Survival.
But each of us are born with natural talents and it's the discovery of those talents that we work on.
Yes, I have seen the impact that our basic PC training project had on disillusioned souls.
Just the fact that they have suddenly learned how to switch a PC on properly changes their entire mindset and they naturally become eager to learn more.
It is that same eagerness that we target, as it leads to self improvement.
I envy your position to help people! I am working towards this model, of helping people become better versions of themselves that also leads to self-improvement. There is such a need (according to some sources) for mental health facilitation in this country but only the rich can afford it, and the stigma surrounding it also does not help. Small steps will hopefully lead to bigger changes in the future. (Sorry for responding only now, PhD stuff is drowning me!)