Healing Racial Wounds: Dismantling Anti-Blackness in Social Work Education and Clinical Practice

6/3/2021 11:00 AM - Not Specified

Presenter: Anna Morgan-Mullane, DSW, LCSW-R and Joshua Ware, LCSW

 

 

This workshop will demonstrate the use of narrative and relational healing practices for communities impacted by racial wounds. Within their presentation, the presenters will first explore how bodies both physically and emotionally respond to intergenerational trauma and the clinical considerations that social workers must employ when providing therapeutic practices designed for healing. Dr. Morgan-Mullane will speak to specific narratives of trauma responsive practices for individuals and family-based practice. Joshua Ware will provide an extensive overview of how to effectively dismantle anti-Blackness within social work training, education, and individual practice model they have designed through his employment of attachment-based therapies and anti-racist supervision practices.

 

 

With this workshop, participants will be able to:

• Develop clinical tools specific to healing racial wounds with the clients they serve.
• Employ individual therapeutic and clinical supervisory practices designed through a framework of somatic abolitionism.
• Address gaps in current social work curriculum and training with new models, authors, and researchers presently identifying the need for a deeper level of unpacking white-body supremacy in social work practice.

 

 

Managing Collaborations and Partnerships in Social Work

6/3/2021 11:00 AM - Not Specified

Presenter: Telvis Rich, EdD, LMSW

 

 

This workshop will provide insight on how participants can develop leadership and management skills to serve diverse populations.

 

Through the exploration of essentials skills commonly presented in business, participants will examine how to effectively employ SWOT Analysis, and community-based partnerships and negotiation acumen to develop innovative leadership practices to build a quality presence in current or future leadership roles. Understanding how to manage conflict, identification of workplace and community barriers, and building respect for difference in practice will be examined. Collaboration, building partnerships and transformational leadership tenants will also guide this interactive and exciting presentation.

 

Participants will take away knowledge on how they can build stronger leadership presence, as well as practical skills and awareness to best serve an agency or private entity.

 

 

With this workshop, participants will be able to:

• Apply SWOT Analysis in social work practice.
• Identify and apply business skills essential to leading a social service agency or private agency using innovative and creative skills.
• Develop a leadership plan to build a quality strategy for an impactful practice in an ever-changing work environment post-COVID-19.

 

Racial Disparities in Health Care: Promoting Healthy Outcomes

6/3/2021 11:00 AM - Not Specified

Presenter: Sandrine Etienne, LMSW

 

 

Chronically ill adults particularly those in underserved communities within the black, brown and Latin X communities are at higher risk for complications related to illness. They require constant education and teaching to significantly reduce the risk of rehospitalizations. By using a collaborative approach to care, not only can we promote healthy outcomes but provide patients and their caregivers with the tools they need to make informed decisions about their care.

 

Accessibility to resources that can empower these communities to have effective communication with the various providers involved in their care is essential as this can lessen their risk for exacerbation of their disease significantly. With this workshop, participants will learn how to help their patients and caregivers identify ways they can increase their ability to effectively communicate their concerns with their medical providers as it can possibly reduce rates of racial disparities in health care. Ways such as reinforcing the need to follow up on a regular basis with annual assessments, regular follow up when it comes to medical appointments, diagnostic exams, screenings, etc. This workshop will also provide insight into potential financial barriers that may limit accessibility to obtaining prescription medications for those who are uninsured or underinsured.

 

 

With this workshop, participants will be able to:

• Understand how social work can play a crucial role within the interdisciplinary team to devise a plan with a collaborative approach to help identify potential barriers to accessing care and offering solutions to lessen negative outcomes associated with illness.
• Identify education-based practices that help patients and families have a clear understanding of their illness through the use of tools that are easy to understand.
• Identify community resources that can offer resources designed to promote healthy practices as a response to help combat the negative aspects of illness.

 

Treating Adolescent Non-Suicidal Self-Injury

6/3/2021 11:00 AM - Not Specified

Presenter: Hanni Flaherty, PhD, LCSW-R

 

 

Non-suicidal self-injurious (NSSI) behavior affects millions of adolescents each year, highlighting a public health problem in need of attention, research, and treatment. Non-suicidal self-injury, the intentional destruction of one’s own body without the intent to die (Ammerman et al., 2016) is growing among adolescents (Selby et al., 2015, Fox, et al., 2015). The recent increase in prevalence makes it highly likely that mental health providers will see an increase in adolescents presenting with this behavior highlighting the urgent need for research and education on how to effectively treat NSSI. Mental health counselors who respond to NSSI must be able to adequately and efficiently identify the various forms of the behavior in order to determine the course of treatment that will best support the client and reduce NSSI behavior.

 

This workshop aims to inform practitioners about the current evidence-based practices that are available to treat adolescents who struggle with NSSI in both those who have co-occurring Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) and those who do not, to determine the best practice for this high-risk population. A comprehensive, systematic review of the empirical literature on the psychosocial treatment and interventions for NSSI for adolescents will be discussed. The interventions to be discussed include: Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Mentalization-Based Treatment for Adolescents, Developmental Group Intervention, Therapeutic Assessment, and Brief Intervention.

 

 

At the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:

• Adequately and efficiently identify the various forms of NSSI behavior.
• Identify current evidence-based practices that are available to treat adolescents who struggle with NSSI in both those who have co-occurring Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) and those who do not.
• Understand a comprehensive, systematic review of the empirical literature on the psychosocial treatment and interventions for NSSI for adolescents.

We are all Political Social Workers!

6/3/2021 11:00 AM - Not Specified

Presenter: Dr. LaShawn Paul, DSW, LCSW-R, ACSW, SIFI

 

 

The NASW Code of Ethics guides professional conduct of individuals in the field of Social Work. It highlights core values, principles, and standards that social workers should follow. The Code of Ethics states that service and social justice are core values of the profession and provide ethical principles to clarify what those values mean.

 

All social workers, regardless of practice area, are required to uphold the Code of Ethics and therefore, the name Political Social Worker is redundant and needs to be further explored through the examination of political social work theory, research, and activism for individual social workers, collective social work groups like NASW’s political action group, and at the organizational level.

 

True change can only occur through systemic change. ‘We are all Political Social Workers!’ calls all social workers to engage in social justice by becoming familiar with political systems that effect how social workers operate, activate their activism, and learn how to mobilize for greatest impact. Political social work is not for the few, but for all of us.

 

 

At the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:

• Recognize how the NASW Code of Ethics calls us to all be political social workers.
• Understand how they can activate their political activism and advocacy.
• Familiarize themselves with organizations like CRISP and the Congressional Social Work Caucus, political social work research and theories.
• Identify future roles that social workers, regardless of practice, can have shaping public policies, legislation, and funding.
• Identify their legislators and learn how to effectively bring attention to social issues

Anti-Racist Alternatives to Mandated Reporting & Reimagining Safety

6/3/2021 2:00 PM - Not Specified

Presenter: Eleni Zimiles, LCSW, Veronica Savage, LMSW and Leah Plasse, LMSW

 

 

In the wake of the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, social workers rose to challenge the racial trauma of mass incarceration and policing. This national reckoning also demands that we as social workers take a critical eye to the ways we operate and sustain systems that disproportionately harm Black, brown and indigenous families in our own profession. Current laws and practices of mandated reporting result in the policing and punishment of Black families through traumatic investigations, surveillance and child-parent separations. Currently in New York City, over 70% of the reports to the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) are for “neglect,” without any physical or sexual abuse, and 60% of those investigations are closed as “unfounded.” Reports to ACS disproportionately target Black families, and often result in investigations and monitoring that are disruptive and traumatic. As social workers, we are often the entry point for families into the child welfare or family regulation system, and are in a unique position to examine and challenge the ways mandated reporting perpetuates structural racism. By reducing the number of unnecessary reports, social workers can help focus ACS resources on more severe cases, reduce the disproportionate stress and trauma on Black families, and create space for more trauma-informed and community-centered safety practices.

 

This workshop examines the historical context and current reality of mandated reporting through a critical race lens, and its impact on Black, brown and Indigenous families in New York City. We will explore how policies on mandated reporting and their implementation have contributed to the overrepresentation of Black children in the family regulation system, and the increased surveillance, regulation and separation of Black families. This workshop will provide social workers, supervisors and advocates with strategies on how to identify implicit biases in reporting, find alternative resources to address family needs, and practice trauma-informed, anti-oppressive holistic care for families. We will share and generate ways to empower social workers to use a community grounded lens to foster family stability, while reducing the financial and emotional costs of unnecessary investigations. Together we’ll challenge the ‘better safe than sorry’ approach and discuss alternative agency policies to support a more just and effective system of care for families across NYC. Through reflection, interactive activities, discussion and lecture participants will walk away with a renewed commitment to family liberation and healing.

 

 

With this workshop, participants will be able to:

• Learn a history of mandated reporting laws & policies in social work practice, and how this context has systemically perpetuated anti-Black racism in our field.
• Identify how personal and organizational implicit biases manifest in reporting practices.
• Explore the impact of mandated reporting on the families they work with, their work environments and on their individual practice.
• Develop strategies for providing trauma-informed support and community-centered resources to families to foster family stability, safety and community connection.
• Investigate avenues for advocacy and culture shift towards transforming mandated reporting and the family regulation system in their agency and in New York City.

 

Building White Women’s Capacity to Do Anti-Racism Work

6/3/2021 2:00 PM - Not Specified

Presenter: Rorri Geller-Mohamed, LCSW

 

 

White women need to build their capacity to speak up and show up for racial equity and justice. Too often white women feel unprepared, lack confidence, freeze up, avoid it, struggle navigating family conflict around it; all of which prevents them from participating in effective anti-racism conversations and actions. The Black Lives Matter movement and other racial justice movements have continued to highlight the need for white people to be actively anti-racist and dismantle white supremacy. White women’s anti-racism work is vital not only as we strive for the human rights of BIPOC but also for their own humanity.

 

As social workers who work with white clients and/or as white social workers, it is necessary that we have the skills to help white women build their capacity to dismantle white supremacy and end racism. This approach to building capacity builds on the social worker’s foundational skills and knowledge from traditional racial equity and anti-racism training but takes it a step further into practical skills, experiences, and situations.

 

In this unique workshop, participants will learn to apply relational theory, family systems, self-awareness, and a community organizing approach together to help their clients (and themselves) to build their skills and capacity to do this work. They will gain deeper insight into their sphere of influence, what that means when using a relational approach, and the impact it can have. The presentation will also cover a variety of topics that are necessary to build capacity including communication skills, shame resilience, challenging perfectionism, emotional awareness, utilizing a relational approach, community organizing techniques, strengthening your anti-racism support system and more.

 

The skills, strategies, and approaches acquired in this workshop will help white women be more prepared, confident, and effective in their anti-racism work. This will result in them speaking up and showing up more consistently and effectively to create racially equitable and just communities.

 

 

With this workshop, participants will be able to:

• Identify 3 strategies that social workers can use to help white women increase their capacity to do anti-racism work.
• Effectively address anti-racism work with white clients.
• Identify 2 ways helping a white client build capacity to do anti-racism work can impact and improve the client’s well-being and the community-at-large.
• Increase participants’ ability to help white women work through their feelings and experiences that prevent them from participating in anti-racism conversations and actions.

 

 

Curating Critically Timed Choice Sets to Prevent Homelessness

6/3/2021 2:00 PM - Not Specified

Presenter: Daniel Farrell, LCSW. Patrick Fowler, PhD and Tina L. Goodrich

 

 

Housing stability for people at risk of homelessness needs to be a priority as the benefit of preventing homelessness is a strong community issue. Communities with high rates of evictions and homelessness often experience additional negative social and economic outcomes such as school displacement for children, loss of income, etc. Equitable housing is about preservation for people on the housing margins.

 

This workshop will challenge attendee’s perception about risk of homelessness, and that well formulated programs that work to enhance housing stability are successful. People are generally risk-averse and act to prevent the loss of something that is highly valued, such as a home. It follows that theoretically grounded and well-run eviction and homeless prevention activities will successfully prevent people from homelessness.

 

The positive outcomes from HELP USA’s 16 years as a HomeBase homeless prevention provider clearly illustrate the impact and success of homeless prevention services. This presentation will describe HELP USA’s successful homeless prevention program and its innovative program, New Beginnings that seek to increase long-term housing stability for young heads of households. This program, grounded in critical time intervention has been successful in lowering the rate of housing instability, homelessness and depression, while increasing positive outcomes such as income and educational attainment, ensuing that homelessness is no longer a constant threat.

 

 

With this workshop, participants will be able to:

• Learn about HELP USA's evidenced-based homeless prevention programs that have successfully prevented thousands of families from becoming homeless.
• Learn about HELP's homeless prevention Critical Time Intervention program. A clinically designed program that works with young heads of households to promote long-term housing stability by working across many domains to include income growth, educational attainment and family planning.
• Gain knowledge to a systems perspective of homeless prevention, and how an increase and shifting of resources is necessary to stem the tide of homelessness.

 

 

Supervising those Closest to the Problem to Lead the Solution

6/3/2021 2:00 PM - Not Specified

Presenter: Bianca Shaw, LMSW, Tracy Serdjenian, LMSW and Imani Worthy

 

 

An emerging topic in nonprofit organizations has been the call to diversify organizational leadership. Overtime, we have witnessed agencies shift their practices to hire and create pathways toward leadership for Black people and People of Color. While that work is commendable, this workshop will explore the need for organizations to focus their efforts on centering and building the leadership capacity of marginalized people who have been directly impacted by social service institutions. As organizations may have created opportunities for increased participation and decision making from the populations they serve, this workshop will explore the benefits, considerations and tensions of hiring, supervising and intentionally placing directly impacted people in leadership positions.

 

Social service organizations and social workers who are committed to justice have longed focused their attention on projects and initiatives that are external facing and address societal issues caused by histories of oppression. This workshop is a call to action for nonprofits to consider how issues of racism, sexism, classism and ableism occurs internally, as organizations remain predominantly led by white executives who likely have not been impacted by the same issues they have taken charge in addressing. In movement spaces, it is said that “those closest to the problem are closest to the solution” however, there has not been a shift in non-profit culture that reflects this, by investing in directly impacted people’s leadership, despite recent acknowledgments to honor, uplift and address their experiences of oppression.

 

Workshop participants will learn about, and practice applying, components of a supervision model that is both anti-oppressive and healing-centered. With a staff that includes over 60% of employees who have been directly impacted by the child welfare system, Rise has created a leadership development model that focuses on incremental skills building, mentoring and feedback, with an emphasis on relationships and undoing power dynamics that are prevalent in traditional workspaces. Participants will learn from the presenter's experience of not only working alongside directly impacted people, but also our recognition that social work cannot be justice work without directly impacted voices, expertise and true leadership.

 

 

At the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:

• Identify opportunities in their programs to hire, train and supervise directly impacted people in their organizations.
• Assess their organization’s current leadership and supervision structure and its capacity to shift toward a model that is anti-oppressive and healing-centered.
• Identify social work values and practices that center working with, and amplifying the experiences of, directly impacted people.
• Apply management tools to their current supervision method that promotes transparent communication, incremental skills building, open communication and feedback and accountability.

 

 

 

Virtual Inclusivity: Building & Facilitating Inclusive Virtual Communities

6/3/2021 2:00 PM - Not Specified

Presenter: Kira O’Brien, DSW Candidate, LMSW

 

 

This interactive and co-created session will highlight the importance of inclusion in the virtual world; ranging from the importance of accessibility to relationship cultivation. Using pedagogical frameworks rooted in critical race and feminist theories, participants will not only understand how to make their virtual experience more inclusive but the historical precedent for doing so, as well as how to seize this moment as an opportunity to model what inclusive communities could look like post-pandemic. Participants will have the opportunity to learn skills and strategies for virtual facilitation, as well as explore tools and resources that are freely available to them.

 

Each exercise will be facilitated in a train-the-trainer model, so that participants will be able to leave the session immediately able to employ their new skills. Ideal for practitioners and educators who are new to virtual facilitation/teaching, as well as those with some comfort - all are welcome!

 

 

At the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:

• Understand the basics of virtual pedagogy, and be able to apply critical race and feminist lenses.
• Demonstrate competency in using different virtual facilitations tools and resources.
• Name and advocate for more inclusive virtual spaces.