Social workers and community organizers were amongst the first to respond to Black and Brown communities during the emergence COVID-19. The quick and strategic actions taken by Social workers and community organizers have helped to close the gap for marginalized Black and Brown communities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Grassroots online fundraising, referrals to legal services specializing in tenant's rights, information on nearby food banks, jail support, mutual aid during social demonstrations, and invitations to social demonstrations targeted at dismantling systems of racism allowed for communities to survive. These quick and strategic actions present at least three implications for enhancing social work education. This article uses what the author has observed and experienced to summarize how social workers and community organizers were among the first to outreach to Black and Brown communities, and how they strategized and acted in ways to keep Black and Brown communities safe and economically stable while utilizing and creating new pathways to engage communities in the movement for social justice. This article concludes with a call to action in interrupting systems of racism by using skills and tools the author has utilized in organizing to enhance social work education.
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.
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