Search

Youth of Color in the United States are often leaders in movements for social justice. Evidence suggests that organizing has a positive macro-therapeutic effect on the mental health of young organizers; however, they can also experience strain and become targets of the very systems they are trying to change. In a community-based participatory action research study, three organizations that train youth of Color in organizing in Brooklyn, New York City held focus groups with youth and adult staff. The focus groups examined the strains experienced by youth organizers and the strategies adult partners use to prepare organizers to maintain hope and well-being. Findings suggest four key emergent strategies: (a) provide an emotional homespace to process the rub between worlds, (b) actively shape the long view on systems change, (c) increase self-care skills and emotional preparation for organizing, and (d) promote healing by building leader(full) communities.

Positive youth development (PYD), while embraced in many sectors of youth work, has faced criticism for its primary emphasis on positive personal change and adaptation, without a strong emphasis on social justice and culture, especially relevant for African Americans. Additional models of PYD addressing these conceptual gaps have emerged, however few explicitly address anti-Black racism and historical trauma impacting African American youth development. In this paper, expanded models of PYD, specifically Empowerment-Based Positive Youth Development (EBPYD) and Critical Positive Youth Development (CPYD) will be examined for their strengths and limitations in responding to (1) anti-Black racism and (2) historical trauma among African American youth. Key strategies of these models, such as promoting prosocial behavior and civic engagement will be reconceptualized and expanded to account for developmental needs imposed by historical oppression and contemporary racism against African American youth. Implications for PYD programing will be discussed.

For Black people of the African diaspora, who have survived generational oppression including enslavement, and exist in persistently hostile environments in which anti-Black racism is structural and interpersonal, an expansive view of posttraumatic growth (PTG) is required to promote personal and collective healing. Using the intergenerational healing and well-being framework, the authors examine historical and contemporary examples of personal and collective healing among Black people to reimagine pathways to PTG. Implications for helping professions when rethinking PTG in the context of systemic anti-Black racism are presented. Public Significance Statement: This conceptual article advances the idea of intergenerational healing and well-being, in the context of anti-Black racism and historical trauma among Black people, extending theorized pathways to posttraumatic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Youth of Color, especially those in households with low income, experience multiple stressors and trauma that affect their well-being. Few studies examine the impact of youth engagement in leadership and organizing to address systemic inequity on their mental health and well-being. In a community-based participatory action research design, three organizations which train youth of Color in organizing in Brooklyn, New York, held four focus groups (n = 43, ages 14-24 years) to examine the impact of organizing on youth mental health and well-being. Key emergent themes of youth organizing include (a) storytelling as therapeutic; (b) group leadership as strengthening personal and collective power, hopefulness, and a sense of protection; and (c) the strain of navigating their hopes and current reality. This study has important implications for actions programs can take who seek to engage youth of Color in organizing in communities and institutions impacted by historical trauma and current day systemic inequity.

African American youth have responded with hope and action to protect their well-being in violent political, economic, and social conditions, through organizing. While contemporary organizing frameworks prioritize self-care to promote sustainability, there is little research on the meaning and definition of self-care for African American youth organizers, in their own words. In this paper, findings from interviews with 20 Black youths in navigating organizing spaces in New York City will be presented, highlighting how they destabilize the narrowness of commonly defined self-care to embody 'collective-self' care strategies. Implications for community practice, recovery from systemic violence, and historical trauma among African Americans will be explored., Author(s): Anna Ortega-Williams [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.257167.0, 0000 0001 2183 6649, Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College of the City University of New York, , 2180 Third [...]

Abstract COVID-19 has revealed and intensified economic and health disparities, prompting a profound national and global examination of racist systems perpetuating such disadvantage. The historic confluence of COVID-19 with movements for social justice offers a window, which COVID fatigue may already be closing, for us to enact true change in the process and content of a graduate social work education. This moment calls for re-envisioned process and content that addresses issues of oppression, social justice, trauma, mental illness, and health. As social work educators with a specialization in trauma, we are thinking deeply about how to harness this juncture to shape a more rigorous and responsive social work educational process. We believe trauma-informed principles must be applied across the social work curriculum, beyond trauma-focused or clinical courses, and to our social work educational institutions. We offer examples of how we have revisioned social work training for ourselves and our students, from our multiple standpoints as faculty, administrator, and field advisor, for the complex challenges and opportunities of chronic syndemic times. We conclude with an invitation to shift away from the social work education status quo and truly practice what we teach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Colorism and historical trauma are part of the lived experiences of many racialized and marginalized groups. However, few studies have examined the meaning and function of colorism and historical trauma among clinical social workers and how prepared they feel to support healing from these experiences in their practice and lives. To address this gap, 42 clinicians of diverse racial, ethnic, gender, and regional identities from the United States were surveyed, of which 35 were interviewed, to explore their experiences of colorism, historical trauma, healing, and clinical social work education. Key themes will be presented: 1) Invisibilized healing & wounds: Black, Asian, mixed race, Latine, and people of color (POC) clinicians identified a need to heal personally from intrafamilial and societal experiences of historical trauma and colorist microaggressions, 2) Closing the gaps in clinical education, and 3) Clinical supervision as a compounded barrier or stepping stone. Implications for decolonial clinical social work education and practice will be discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, six social work scholars at varying career stages and institutions used collaborative autoethnography to identify (1) structural constraints and tensions to engage in participatory action research (PAR) in the academy, (2) the strategies we have used to navigate this work, and (3) suggestions for structural changes necessary to meaningfully value this work in the academy. Key structural constraints and tensions center around questioning the legitimacy of this work, time necessary to do this work, challenges funding this work, and inherent ableism in the academy. We share case examples of strategies PAR scholars have used to navigate or subvert academic expectations, including operationalizing values, rooting in movements, uplifting accessibility and knowledge; holding accountability to community, and articulating commitments. We end with recommendations for social work institutions and funders to meaningfully elevate, support, and fund PAR work in the academy. Specifically, we see the need for social work institutions to elevate PAR training and reward systems as legitimate knowledge, build support systems for conducting PAR in the academy, revise evaluation of scholars at milestones to value PAR; funders should also work to align funding opportunities and practices with participatory praxis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social work has enhanced its profile in the United States by adopting a particular dialect of scientific inquiry wherein positivism and evidence-based practice are considered gold standards of social work research and practice. This ideological shift permeates doctoral education and research training, as well as social work more broadly. Little attention, however, is paid to the pedagogical approaches used to train doctoral students into a "science of social work," and we know even less about critical methodologies in doctoral education. This collaborative autoethnography weaves together the personal narratives of three doctoral students and one early career faculty member navigating an academic context within a large public university in the United States. We employ a participatory and intersectional approach to analyze narrative data in terms of how our identities interact with the structures relevant to where we study and work. Three themes emerged from our collaborative analysis: becoming disillusioned by disciplinary shortcoming; confronting dissonance with radical solidarity; and making change on the inside using perspectives from the outside. We argue throughout that critical reflexivity is a tool to document, resist, and transform hegemonic discourse that narrowly defines what it means to embody social work research, practice, and education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: An evolution of thought and practice regarding the relationship of racism to well-being, healing, and trauma continues within social work and the helping professions. Additionally, empirical research on colorism as a key dimension of racism suggests that colorism negatively impacts the psychological and physical well-being of African Americans. However, few studies have examined well-being among African Americans in the context of historical trauma, through the lens of colorism. In this paper, the intersectionality of colorism and historical trauma is explored to inform culturally responsive social work education, practice, and research regarding African American well-being. It is the first step toward developing a colorist-historical trauma framework. The impact of colorism as a function of historical trauma response transmission among African Americans is presented. Findings: Advances in culturally responsive practice in social work address the impact of social determinants of health, such as racism. However, the impact of colorism within systemic racism is often unacknowledged. The authors assert that social work practice must attune to the differentiated socioemotional, political, and economic needs that exist among African Americans due to the impact of colorism and historical trauma. An intersectional lens, such as the colorist-historical trauma framework, is essential for culturally responsive practice. Applications: The colorist-historical trauma framework contributes to the professional social work discourse aimed at strengthening effective micro-, meso-, and macro-level practice with African Americans for well-being. Implications for social work practice, research, and education are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]