WEBVTT

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- Good evening.

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- [Voiceover] Good evening.

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- Thank you.

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My name is Hye-Kyung Kang and
I'm a resident faculty member

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here at the Smith College
School for Social Work.

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I'd like to welcome you to this
year's anti-racism lecture.

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The annual anti-racism lecture
is a part of our school's

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continuous effort to becoming
an anti-racism institution.

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I'd like to give you a little context

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about our anti-racism commitment.

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Although the Smith College
School for Social Work

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has long envisioned itself as committed

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to an anti-racism stance,
both in our policy

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and programming, the school has recognized

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that there was a very low
enrollment of students of color

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in the late 1980s.

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This recognition led
to a serious assessment

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of the institution, which was led

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by the alumni of color

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conference at that time.

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The conference generated
sweeping proposals

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addressing all levels of
institutional practices

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to help the school progress
towards its anti-racism stance.

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In addition, School for
Social Work students,

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in the early 1990s, further
pushed the school's progress,

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which culminated in 1994, when the school

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made an official commitment

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to becoming an anti-racism institution

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by formally adopting its
anti-racism commitment statement.

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You can see the statement in our website.

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This commitment brought many
changes in ongoing efforts

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in all aspects of the institution,

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including student recruitment,
staff and faculty hiring,

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curriculum, school
policies and programming,

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and other institutional practices.

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Also, structures have been
established to track progress

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toward our commitment
involving all faculty,

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administrators, and staff.

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So this annual anti-racism lecture

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is part of this overall effort.

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This year's lecture, Healing
Trauma, Restoring Community,

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Trauma, Race, and Social
Work in the Urban Context

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explores race and class
and the current narrative

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surrounding trauma-informed practice,

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particularly in urban contexts,

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in how social workers
and other practitioners

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can partner with communities

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to bring healing and social change.

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I am thrilled to introduce to you

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tonight's speaker, Dr. Troy Harden.

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Dr. Harden currently
serves as the co-director

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for the institute of, for
Youth and Community Engagement

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at Chicago State University,

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where he is an assistant professor

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within its MSW program.

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He is a graduate of Loyola
University Chicago's

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MSW program,

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and received his doctorate
from DePaul University's

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School of Education.

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Dr. Harden's research and work include

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critical urban youth studies,

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the intersection of
education and community

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in innovative programming,
and public health.

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Dr. Harden has over 25 years' experience

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serving and consulting in social service,

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education, and community settings.

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He has worked as a
commission, administrator,

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educator, community
practitioner, and activist

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concerning community issues.

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Please join me in
welcoming Dr. Troy Harden.

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(applause)

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- Good evening.

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How's everybody feeling?

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Excellent, excellent.

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I'm really really excited to be here.

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Really honored to be here.

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So I'd just like to first thank Dr. Kang

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and the Smith College
School of Social Work

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for inviting me out.

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It's really a privilege, an honor,

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any time I get an opportunity to share

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any of my work, so I'm really humbled

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by the opportunity to come here.

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You all do some amazing work here.

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And what I know about many
social work students, as well,

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is that you often come
from very rich backgrounds

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and traditions of working in community

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and serving people and
getting outside of yourself,

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so it's always an honor to
be amongst kindred spirits

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and amongst friends.

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I have to say

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that I really also like this town.

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It's really nice, a nice quaint town,

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right, it's really cool.

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And I really wanted to get
here like a day in advance

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to really soak up.

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Today, I just got here about
three or four hours ago, maybe.

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And so my flight was scheduled to leave

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last night at six o'clock.

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I really wanted, I'm a
father of two young children,

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I really wanted to be at
home for Father's Day,

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and so my plan was to
leave at six last night,

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but the flight got delayed,

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so on the way to the
airport, I got the news

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that the flight was delayed.

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And as it goes, I had a connecting flight

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from Chicago to Detroit and
then here into Hartford,

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and so I wouldn't be able to
catch the connecting flight.

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So, you know, on the way home,

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I'm on the phone, I'm talking,

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I'm negotiating this
stuff, and my daughter,

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my six-year-old daughter's
in the car with me.

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And she's listening,
overhearing my conversation,

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she's listening to my conversation

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and I'm doing all these things

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where I'm trying to make sure
I get a flight to get here

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this morning.

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And so she says, after
I get off the phone,

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she says, Daddy.

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I'm like, what?

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She says,

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I have a solution.

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And I'm thinking, Okay, solution.

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Solution to what?

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She said, To your flight problem.

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I said, I said, What?

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She said, Well you're
giving a presentation,

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you're supposed to give
a presentation, right?

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I said, Yeah,

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She said, Well, you
can give a presentation

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to my stuffed animals instead, right?

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(audience laughs)

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So.

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So, you know, look,

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no shame in my game, I have no problems

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presenting to stuffed animals.

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So, you know.

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But it's really nice to be
here with you all, you know.

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Now, I do need to say that Mr. Fluffy

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and Miss Stuffy are much
harder, tougher audiences

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than you are, so I think
it's all downhill from here.

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Great preparation.

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But I'm really excited to be here.

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Any time I speak,

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whether that's in the classroom

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or doing a talk, I always
start with giving some honor,

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an homage to people who came before me,

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my ancestors.

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I truly stand on the
shoulders of my parents

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and also my grandparents
and great-grandparents,

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and those who came before
me, going all the way back

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to the continent.

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And also acknowledge that
there are many many people

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behind me whose voice speaks through mine.

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You don't see them, but
they're there with me today.

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And so it's really
critically important for me

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to really consider,

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are the words that come out of my mouth

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acceptable to the people
who came before me,

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my ancestors, my actions as well.

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And so, I thought it appropriate to start

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with a little quote, right?

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So those of you know,
this is a recent ancestor,

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one of my recent ancestors, right?

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Ruby Dee, the actress and
activist made transition

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just a few days ago.

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I'm sure many of you heard about it.

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I've always been a long fan of her.

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And about 12, 15 years
ago, I had the oppotunity

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to hear her and her
husband Ossie Davis speak

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in Chicago.

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And one of the things that
they were talking about,

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naturally, a lot of people really admired

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their marriage and stuff,
and so they were talking

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and people were asking
questions about their marriage.

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So, she came out with this quote.

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When somebody asked
about love, and she said

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Love is passion clothed
in infinite patience.

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And I thought, what a,
such a profound statement.

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If you've been married for a long time,

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you definitely understand it, right?

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But I think in this context,
it comes from a different place

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and a different space associated
with this idea of love.

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The ethic of love.

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We don't talk about enough
in social work, I think,

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about this thing called love, right,

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in terms of loving the work,
loving the people we work with,

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and having passion about
the work that we do.

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But also understanding the need
for patience with ourselves,

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with the work.

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It takes time, the willingness
to dig and struggle,

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it takes time.

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And so, I felt that was important.

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And I'm also reminded

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of a book that Dr. King
wrote so many years ago.

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Why We Can't Wait, right?

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You know, that talked about the urgency

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of struggle and the things we need to do.

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So, I'm reminded, and
I think, contextually,

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I think about this idea of
patience, ethical or pedagogy

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of patience, but also persistence, right?

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Is that we both need to
be patient, you know,

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and understand that with each other

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and as we do the work, but also this idea

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of persistent, that persistent
struggle and staying with it

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and staying with the work.

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So I'm also thrilled to be here

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and talking about this
idea of anti-racism.

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My work is grounded in anti-racist work.

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I don't speak it all the time.

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It's how I live, right?

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I might speak more about being more pro,

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pro-African American, pro-black,

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all those kinds of things,

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but ultimately, the work is grounded,

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I'm pro-humanist, for that matter,

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but my work is grounded in that sense.

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And so I've been doing a
lot of anti-racist work,

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anti-sexist work, you know,
for a number of years,

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both in Chicago and around the world.

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And I've done a lot of training,
all that kind of stuff.

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But I wanna tell a quick
story about a friend of mine.

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His name, I'll call him Tom.

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And Tom and I have been
friends about 20 years.

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Tom is white.

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He's conservative, and
he's wealthy, right?

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And so, and I pitched it, you know me,

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I'm kind of the opposite.

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I'm black, I'm progressive,
and, well, not so much wealthy,

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that's a whole other thing.

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But that's Tom, right.

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That's me and Tom.

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So Tom, Tom and I, just to picture,

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we do work together.

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Tom is committed to service,

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he's committed to community development,

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so he's engaged in a
lot of community efforts

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around Chicago and nationally,

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and even internationally.

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And so we have very pointed, honest,

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and very intimate
conversations about race,

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and about class, and about justice.

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You know, we talk about
every subject under the sun.

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We hold each other accountable.

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And we love each other, that's my guy.

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You know, and so, we
can talk about anything.

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So recently, we've been
doing some work together.

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And about a month ago, Tom
and I were having lunch.

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And Tom said, You know.

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And he was talking about
some work we were doing

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with some African American males,

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with some African American social workers

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and some young men in the city,

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this mentoring program.

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I'll talk a little more about that later.

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But part of the idea is
really being able to expose

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young people to positive guys,

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00:11:34.300 --> 00:11:36.743
and so it's important for us to have

259
00:11:36.743 --> 00:11:39.740
social work men of color
in the work that we do.

260
00:11:39.740 --> 00:11:41.478
And so Tom was kinda critiquing that.

261
00:11:41.478 --> 00:11:46.261
He said, You know, I think this
is my racist self speaking.

262
00:11:46.481 --> 00:11:51.461
But I wonder whether or not
it's always best to have,

263
00:11:51.461 --> 00:11:55.840
you know, these guys exposed
just to social workers, right?

264
00:11:55.840 --> 00:11:58.560
You know, and I'm looking
at Tom and I'm like,

265
00:11:58.560 --> 00:12:01.247
Well my black friends might
not have a problem with that,

266
00:12:01.247 --> 00:12:04.708
but my social work friends
might whip your ass, right?

267
00:12:04.735 --> 00:12:07.338
They might come after you, you know.

268
00:12:07.338 --> 00:12:10.580
So we have those kind of conversations,

269
00:12:10.580 --> 00:12:14.025
we talk like that, and
we ultimately come to,

270
00:12:14.025 --> 00:12:18.174
you know, we move the needle
in our work relationship

271
00:12:18.174 --> 00:12:20.713
and our work, you know, in
terms of our work together.

272
00:12:20.713 --> 00:12:25.118
And I wanted to enter there,
because for Tom and I,

273
00:12:25.118 --> 00:12:27.027
we don't get a pass.

274
00:12:27.027 --> 00:12:29.182
Neither one of us get a
pass in the work, you know.

275
00:12:29.182 --> 00:12:31.741
With all the years of
work and struggle I do,

276
00:12:31.741 --> 00:12:34.056
and with whatever he does
and what he's trying to do.

277
00:12:34.056 --> 00:12:35.592
I don't let up.

278
00:12:35.592 --> 00:12:37.608
We love each other, but I don't let up.

279
00:12:37.608 --> 00:12:40.722
And so the invitation
is, in this space today,

280
00:12:40.722 --> 00:12:43.527
that no one gets a pass,
that no matter, you know,

281
00:12:43.527 --> 00:12:46.599
what work you do, or what you've done,

282
00:12:46.599 --> 00:12:49.543
or how many times you went
to an anti-racist lecture,

283
00:12:49.543 --> 00:12:52.060
or how African-centered you might be.

284
00:12:52.060 --> 00:12:54.993
Whatever it might be, no one gets a pass.

285
00:12:54.993 --> 00:12:57.169
That we can love each
other enough to be able

286
00:12:57.169 --> 00:13:00.049
to tell the truth about the
work and struggle together.

287
00:13:00.049 --> 00:13:02.812
And I say, I don't get a pass myself.

288
00:13:02.812 --> 00:13:05.179
I'm constantly a work in progress.

289
00:13:05.179 --> 00:13:08.272
When I work with young people,
I think about adultism,

290
00:13:08.272 --> 00:13:10.896
and I think about how I
age out everyday, right?

291
00:13:10.896 --> 00:13:12.454
I get a little bit older every day.

292
00:13:12.454 --> 00:13:14.747
I get a little bit more
out of touch every day,

293
00:13:14.747 --> 00:13:18.629
so my struggle, you know, it
has to continue every day.

294
00:13:18.629 --> 00:13:20.688
And so it's almost like a 12 step program.

295
00:13:20.688 --> 00:13:22.757
You know, in AA it's one
day at a time, right?

296
00:13:22.757 --> 00:13:25.541
You know, with this struggle called racism

297
00:13:25.541 --> 00:13:27.589
and classism and sexism in our work,

298
00:13:27.589 --> 00:13:30.095
it is truly a one day at a time process,

299
00:13:30.095 --> 00:13:32.442
'cause it is constantly evolving.

300
00:13:32.442 --> 00:13:35.065
The oppressiveness constantly evolves,

301
00:13:35.065 --> 00:13:36.761
so the work must evolve.

302
00:13:36.761 --> 00:13:39.289
So I wanted to enter
into that conversation

303
00:13:39.289 --> 00:13:42.169
of truth-saying, truth-speaking,
and truth-telling,

304
00:13:42.169 --> 00:13:44.953
because that's the context
of the work that we do.

305
00:13:44.953 --> 00:13:48.163
In Chicago, we really
find that to be important

306
00:13:48.163 --> 00:13:49.646
and critical to our work.

307
00:13:49.646 --> 00:13:53.272
In that way, I'm almost
like Diogenes, right?

308
00:13:53.272 --> 00:13:56.376
You know, I continue to
seek, like Diogenes sought

309
00:13:56.376 --> 00:13:59.075
the honest man, you know,
I continue to seek somebody

310
00:13:59.075 --> 00:14:02.093
in this country who
hasn't been infected by

311
00:14:02.093 --> 00:14:03.650
the scourge of racism.

312
00:14:03.650 --> 00:14:05.272
If you were born in this
country, in particular.

313
00:14:05.272 --> 00:14:06.594
Maybe not so much outside,

314
00:14:06.594 --> 00:14:08.013
but particularly if you were born,

315
00:14:08.013 --> 00:14:10.146
we were all, you know, impacted by this.

316
00:14:10.146 --> 00:14:13.591
So this work is about moving
to this place, ultimately,

317
00:14:13.591 --> 00:14:15.394
of freedom associated with that.

318
00:14:15.394 --> 00:14:17.932
So, a little bit about some of my work.

319
00:14:17.932 --> 00:14:21.505
This is a little bit about Project Mentor.

320
00:14:21.505 --> 00:14:25.452
About 10 years ago, we received funding

321
00:14:25.452 --> 00:14:27.521
from the Department of
Health and Human Services

322
00:14:27.521 --> 00:14:30.326
to launch a program,

323
00:14:30.326 --> 00:14:33.504
it was a holistic health
mentoring program.

324
00:14:33.504 --> 00:14:36.950
And we grounded our work
in several principles,

325
00:14:36.950 --> 00:14:38.784
naturally, positive youth development

326
00:14:38.784 --> 00:14:40.469
and some of those kind
of things, you know,

327
00:14:40.469 --> 00:14:43.930
but also really having a strong,
affirmative cultural space.

328
00:14:43.930 --> 00:14:45.370
You'll see me somewhere in the back,

329
00:14:45.370 --> 00:14:46.649
trying to look hard like that.

330
00:14:46.649 --> 00:14:48.057
Right, you know.

331
00:14:49.527 --> 00:14:52.125
But we did a lot of circle work.

332
00:14:52.125 --> 00:14:54.631
We did a lot of work in
terms of peace-building

333
00:14:54.631 --> 00:14:56.530
with young people in Chicago.

334
00:14:56.530 --> 00:14:59.836
It was co-ed, young men and women.

335
00:15:01.426 --> 00:15:03.132
We found something interesting.

336
00:15:03.132 --> 00:15:04.924
We did a randomized
trial, so it was kind of

337
00:15:04.924 --> 00:15:08.124
the gold standard of
research associated with it.

338
00:15:09.624 --> 00:15:11.921
Our program showed some mixed results.

339
00:15:11.921 --> 00:15:16.049
For the more high-achieving young people,

340
00:15:16.049 --> 00:15:17.798
we didn't see much of a bump.

341
00:15:17.798 --> 00:15:19.515
So these are the young
people who are already

342
00:15:19.515 --> 00:15:21.488
headed to college and were doing,

343
00:15:21.488 --> 00:15:23.781
already doing some good work.

344
00:15:23.781 --> 00:15:26.181
They might already be engaged
in different activities,

345
00:15:26.181 --> 00:15:28.378
playing sports, all that kind of stuff.

346
00:15:28.378 --> 00:15:30.416
So we didn't see much of a change.

347
00:15:30.416 --> 00:15:32.847
They didn't get much worse,
they didn't get worse at all.

348
00:15:32.847 --> 00:15:34.597
They didn't get much better, though.

349
00:15:34.597 --> 00:15:37.658
They had more relationships,
which is interesting,

350
00:15:37.658 --> 00:15:39.300
but they didn't have some other stuff.

351
00:15:39.300 --> 00:15:43.002
But for our more, what we so
call at risk young people,

352
00:15:43.002 --> 00:15:44.900
young people who were
struggling a little bit,

353
00:15:44.900 --> 00:15:46.553
the young people in street organizations,

354
00:15:46.553 --> 00:15:48.431
the young people who
might have been teetering

355
00:15:48.431 --> 00:15:50.432
on being in school or not.

356
00:15:50.432 --> 00:15:53.866
They had the significant
transformation within the context

357
00:15:53.866 --> 00:15:55.167
of the program.

358
00:15:55.167 --> 00:15:57.695
And so we still knew that
we were onto something

359
00:15:57.695 --> 00:16:00.415
in terms of how we set up our work.

360
00:16:00.415 --> 00:16:03.273
So just a little context
about the set-up of the work.

361
00:16:04.413 --> 00:16:07.764
I'm a social worker, as
Dr. Kang illustrated.

362
00:16:07.764 --> 00:16:09.598
I've been doing a lot of
different types of work

363
00:16:09.598 --> 00:16:10.964
for a long time.

364
00:16:10.964 --> 00:16:13.961
Clinical work , administrative
work, I run programs,

365
00:16:13.961 --> 00:16:16.254
policy work, all that kind of stuff.

366
00:16:16.254 --> 00:16:18.024
Several years ago, in the early,

367
00:16:18.024 --> 00:16:20.606
I started out just doing clinical work.

368
00:16:22.056 --> 00:16:24.435
I was trained in psychoanalytic therapy,

369
00:16:24.435 --> 00:16:26.707
and really digging in, you know,

370
00:16:26.707 --> 00:16:28.541
with some of my clients.

371
00:16:28.541 --> 00:16:31.831
I had a client, I'll call him Michael.

372
00:16:32.072 --> 00:16:35.719
And Michael was from Cabrini Green.

373
00:16:35.719 --> 00:16:37.437
For those who don't know, Cabrini Green

374
00:16:37.437 --> 00:16:40.594
was a public housing space in Chicago.

375
00:16:40.594 --> 00:16:45.450
It's notoriously famous for
Good Times and Candy Man.

376
00:16:45.450 --> 00:16:47.056
You know, a lot of
people thought Candy Man

377
00:16:47.056 --> 00:16:48.965
was out back in the day, right?

378
00:16:48.965 --> 00:16:50.469
You all know about Candy Man?

379
00:16:50.469 --> 00:16:52.165
I got it, all right, all right.

380
00:16:52.165 --> 00:16:54.533
So it's been up and down,

381
00:16:54.533 --> 00:16:57.626
but again, it's been a space,
it's a contested space,

382
00:16:57.626 --> 00:17:00.015
and I'll talk a little bit
more about that in a second.

383
00:17:00.015 --> 00:17:03.194
So Michael was referred to me

384
00:17:03.194 --> 00:17:05.124
through the probation department.

385
00:17:05.124 --> 00:17:07.812
Michael had shot his
best friend by accident.

386
00:17:07.812 --> 00:17:09.583
He was 14 years old,
he was in eighth grade

387
00:17:09.583 --> 00:17:12.089
at a school called Sojourner Truth.

388
00:17:12.089 --> 00:17:14.735
And he had did a little bit of time

389
00:17:14.735 --> 00:17:18.446
in juvenile detention center,
and then he was referred home

390
00:17:18.446 --> 00:17:19.566
and then he was referred to me.

391
00:17:19.566 --> 00:17:21.151
So I started seeing Michael and,

392
00:17:21.151 --> 00:17:23.519
in true social work form,
I met him where he was at.

393
00:17:23.519 --> 00:17:26.282
I didn't, my office was in Lincoln Park,

394
00:17:26.282 --> 00:17:28.980
so Michael wasn't gonna
come to Lincoln Park

395
00:17:28.980 --> 00:17:31.721
just to picture Lincoln Park,
it's probably the wealthiest

396
00:17:31.721 --> 00:17:35.134
area, neighborhood in Chicago,

397
00:17:35.134 --> 00:17:38.590
and it's really walking
distance from Cabrini Green.

398
00:17:38.590 --> 00:17:41.545
More about the segregation
in Chicago later,

399
00:17:41.545 --> 00:17:44.190
but that's, you know, part of the context.

400
00:17:44.190 --> 00:17:46.814
So I would go meet Michael at his house,

401
00:17:46.814 --> 00:17:49.693
I would go to the school, we'd
go to the basketball court.

402
00:17:49.693 --> 00:17:51.549
We did all these things.

403
00:17:51.549 --> 00:17:55.336
And Michael, on the exterior,
presented very tough,

404
00:17:55.336 --> 00:17:56.680
very hard, right?

405
00:17:56.680 --> 00:18:00.050
He was a member of a street
organization, all that stuff.

406
00:18:00.050 --> 00:18:03.282
But in session, Michael
was very emotional,

407
00:18:03.282 --> 00:18:06.770
very reflective, talked a lot about

408
00:18:06.770 --> 00:18:09.094
what he had experienced,

409
00:18:09.094 --> 00:18:10.972
the shooting, the nightmares he was having

410
00:18:10.972 --> 00:18:12.391
based on the shooting.

411
00:18:12.391 --> 00:18:15.623
The family of the young man who was shot,

412
00:18:15.623 --> 00:18:18.524
he was paralyzed from the neck down.

413
00:18:18.524 --> 00:18:22.513
The family of the young man,
they didn't enact revenge

414
00:18:22.513 --> 00:18:26.182
upon Michael physically, but
they did emotionally, right?

415
00:18:26.182 --> 00:18:28.624
And so they constantly drove at Michael,

416
00:18:28.624 --> 00:18:30.875
the constantly, when they
saw him in the streets,

417
00:18:30.875 --> 00:18:33.286
you know, they, you
know, made threats to him

418
00:18:33.286 --> 00:18:34.501
and they talked about him.

419
00:18:34.501 --> 00:18:38.683
The eighth grade graduation,
when it's very celebratory

420
00:18:38.683 --> 00:18:43.536
in Chicago for a lot of reasons,
but it's a big celebration.

421
00:18:43.536 --> 00:18:46.319
They taunted Michael when
he went across the stage.

422
00:18:46.319 --> 00:18:47.855
So this is what he was experiencing.

423
00:18:47.855 --> 00:18:51.215
So he talked about this trauma
that he was experiencing,

424
00:18:51.215 --> 00:18:52.847
this PTSD.

425
00:18:52.847 --> 00:18:55.887
So I saw Michael all the way
from roughly, let's say January

426
00:18:55.887 --> 00:18:59.167
of his eighth grade year
up until the summer.

427
00:18:59.167 --> 00:19:01.066
Michael was getting ready
to enter high school,

428
00:19:01.066 --> 00:19:04.596
he entered Lincoln Park
High School, oddly enough.

429
00:19:04.596 --> 00:19:07.316
Lincoln Park is an interesting school.

430
00:19:07.316 --> 00:19:09.385
Michael's in special education,
and what they would do

431
00:19:09.385 --> 00:19:11.433
with the special ed students
is that they would place them

432
00:19:11.433 --> 00:19:14.153
in the basement, you know,
of the school, right?

433
00:19:14.153 --> 00:19:15.892
So there's problems with that.

434
00:19:15.892 --> 00:19:17.523
And so, again, I would see Michael,

435
00:19:17.523 --> 00:19:20.627
and we agreed that I would
start seeing him at the school.

436
00:19:20.627 --> 00:19:23.422
Well, I went to school on the first day,

437
00:19:23.422 --> 00:19:25.768
I went to school on the
second day, they said,

438
00:19:25.768 --> 00:19:27.709
We can't make this happen.

439
00:19:27.709 --> 00:19:29.907
I kept going back for almost three months

440
00:19:29.907 --> 00:19:32.232
and I never got to see Michael,

441
00:19:32.232 --> 00:19:33.928
and I never saw Michael again.

442
00:19:34.648 --> 00:19:38.597
And so, my work, in a
lot of ways, became about

443
00:19:38.597 --> 00:19:40.791
searching for Michael, in some ways,

444
00:19:40.791 --> 00:19:44.023
but also recognizing
that the work I had to do

445
00:19:44.023 --> 00:19:46.508
was beyond the individual,
beyond the interpersonal.

446
00:19:46.508 --> 00:19:48.876
That I had to be able to
deal with these structures,

447
00:19:48.876 --> 00:19:51.286
these institutions, as the both/and.

448
00:19:51.286 --> 00:19:53.078
They're no longer either/or for me.

449
00:19:53.078 --> 00:19:55.446
There's a both/and in terms of the work

450
00:19:55.446 --> 00:19:57.208
that is inherently if I choose to work

451
00:19:57.208 --> 00:20:00.408
with the individual, you know,
in that one to one setting,

452
00:20:00.408 --> 00:20:02.264
or even in the small group setting.

453
00:20:02.264 --> 00:20:04.632
Ultimately I need to
deal with the structures

454
00:20:04.632 --> 00:20:07.629
and institutions that he or
she are dealing with, right?

455
00:20:07.629 --> 00:20:10.824
And I swore at that point that
we would begin that process.

456
00:20:10.824 --> 00:20:14.611
So when we started Project
Mentor and I'll move on

457
00:20:14.611 --> 00:20:17.768
to our other process, which
is called Full Circle,

458
00:20:17.768 --> 00:20:21.672
we inherently began this
process of doing the both/and

459
00:20:21.672 --> 00:20:22.887
of our work.

460
00:20:22.887 --> 00:20:25.927
And constantly reinforcing
and asking questions

461
00:20:25.927 --> 00:20:27.783
around what that is.

462
00:20:27.783 --> 00:20:31.495
So often, funders or even
instructors and professors

463
00:20:31.495 --> 00:20:34.567
and academics and
researchers, we often attempt

464
00:20:34.567 --> 00:20:37.585
to pigeon-hole the people
who do practice work

465
00:20:37.585 --> 00:20:39.654
into one or the other.

466
00:20:39.654 --> 00:20:40.998
Are you doing organizing work

467
00:20:40.998 --> 00:20:42.673
or are you doing one to one therapy?

468
00:20:42.673 --> 00:20:45.062
Do you have an intervention
that works with this group,

469
00:20:45.062 --> 00:20:47.035
or are you trying to change policy?

470
00:20:47.035 --> 00:20:48.251
Which one is it?

471
00:20:48.251 --> 00:20:50.843
And somehow the two don't always mix.

472
00:20:50.843 --> 00:20:53.264
And so we knew we had to be able to affirm

473
00:20:53.264 --> 00:20:56.261
that this Full Circle
was our next project,

474
00:20:56.261 --> 00:20:59.067
but we dealt with young
men in street organizations

475
00:20:59.067 --> 00:21:01.989
who, it's so-called violence prevention,

476
00:21:01.989 --> 00:21:04.176
but the idea, you know,
was to get them engaged

477
00:21:04.176 --> 00:21:06.170
in leadership in their communities.

478
00:21:06.170 --> 00:21:07.909
So this was a social marketing project.

479
00:21:07.909 --> 00:21:09.519
This was some of the work they did,

480
00:21:09.519 --> 00:21:12.719
where they designed, you know,
different marketing pieces

481
00:21:12.719 --> 00:21:15.482
to really try to demonstrate
another affirmative space

482
00:21:15.482 --> 00:21:16.601
in their community.

483
00:21:16.601 --> 00:21:18.489
So this billboard, if you were in Chicago

484
00:21:18.489 --> 00:21:20.783
a couple years ago, on
the west side of Chicago,

485
00:21:20.783 --> 00:21:23.086
around Chicago Pulaski,
you would have seen

486
00:21:23.086 --> 00:21:24.217
this sign up.

487
00:21:24.217 --> 00:21:25.753
This is some of the
young men in our program.

488
00:21:25.753 --> 00:21:27.726
They actually created
this and designed this.

489
00:21:27.726 --> 00:21:30.158
They did participatory action research,

490
00:21:30.158 --> 00:21:32.099
a group that a lot of people feel,

491
00:21:32.099 --> 00:21:34.894
you know they can't understand research,

492
00:21:34.894 --> 00:21:37.443
they don't know how to think
about some kind of things

493
00:21:37.443 --> 00:21:39.213
where they researched their community,

494
00:21:39.213 --> 00:21:40.739
things about their community, present it,

495
00:21:40.739 --> 00:21:42.061
those kind of things.

496
00:21:42.061 --> 00:21:44.365
And so we knew we were
really onto something

497
00:21:44.365 --> 00:21:49.169
about creating a unique space
around the work that we do.

498
00:21:50.391 --> 00:21:53.826
So this led to an opportunity that came up

499
00:21:53.826 --> 00:21:56.215
a couple years ago.

500
00:21:56.215 --> 00:22:00.652
I was doing work with
one of my colleagues,

501
00:22:00.652 --> 00:22:02.999
Dr. Kimberly Mann.

502
00:22:02.999 --> 00:22:07.681
And Dr. Mann is a professor
in our department,

503
00:22:07.681 --> 00:22:12.681
but she also heads our
state's child welfare system's

504
00:22:12.823 --> 00:22:14.401
trauma inform project.

505
00:22:14.401 --> 00:22:17.857
They are responsible for
training every one in the state

506
00:22:17.857 --> 00:22:20.022
around trauma-informed practice,

507
00:22:20.022 --> 00:22:21.206
state of Illinois.

508
00:22:21.206 --> 00:22:23.777
And so she designed
curriculum, works in that work.

509
00:22:23.777 --> 00:22:27.051
And so she was interested
in talking with me more

510
00:22:27.051 --> 00:22:29.078
about trauma-informed work.

511
00:22:29.078 --> 00:22:32.064
At the time, I was really
trying to stay away

512
00:22:32.064 --> 00:22:34.880
from violence work,
because, you know, violence,

513
00:22:34.880 --> 00:22:37.525
as much and as important
as it is, can sometimes

514
00:22:37.525 --> 00:22:39.317
get sexy amongst researchers,

515
00:22:39.317 --> 00:22:41.152
and so people try to chase the dollars

516
00:22:41.152 --> 00:22:43.050
and everybody wants to do
something around violence.

517
00:22:43.050 --> 00:22:45.973
So I really tried to stay away from that.

518
00:22:45.973 --> 00:22:48.181
The problem was, in both our programs,

519
00:22:48.181 --> 00:22:52.575
in Project Mentor as
well as in Full Circle,

520
00:22:52.575 --> 00:22:54.335
all the young people kept telling me,

521
00:22:54.335 --> 00:22:56.073
you know we do all these interventions,

522
00:22:56.073 --> 00:22:59.071
and for example, we work
on some of the drug use,

523
00:22:59.071 --> 00:23:00.788
the drug use around marijuana use

524
00:23:00.788 --> 00:23:02.281
and say, Why you smokin'
so much marijuana?

525
00:23:02.281 --> 00:23:04.094
'Cause I'm so stressed out, right?

526
00:23:04.094 --> 00:23:05.982
And we worked on issues
of obesity and nutrition

527
00:23:05.982 --> 00:23:07.422
and said, Why are you eating so much?

528
00:23:07.422 --> 00:23:08.766
Why are you not working out?

529
00:23:08.766 --> 00:23:10.227
Why are you not going outside to play?

530
00:23:10.227 --> 00:23:12.542
Because it's so violent and
I'm so stressed out, right?

531
00:23:12.542 --> 00:23:14.440
So they were constantly coming back

532
00:23:14.440 --> 00:23:16.926
to this idea of the stress
and this persistent stress

533
00:23:16.926 --> 00:23:18.525
that they were dealing with.

534
00:23:18.525 --> 00:23:22.664
And so I knew we needed to do
something to unpack this issue

535
00:23:22.664 --> 00:23:25.981
and to do it in a
progressive and a rich way.

536
00:23:25.981 --> 00:23:30.301
So, just a little bit about
the context of violence.

537
00:23:30.301 --> 00:23:32.199
You see, that's a Safe Passage sign.

538
00:23:32.199 --> 00:23:34.716
So Chicago has gotten such

539
00:23:34.716 --> 00:23:38.887
that we need these signs up

540
00:23:38.887 --> 00:23:42.945
to let people know that you
can go this way to school.

541
00:23:43.580 --> 00:23:45.254
This is some of the
stuff we're dealing with.

542
00:23:45.254 --> 00:23:47.036
And so those signs, the flowers,

543
00:23:47.036 --> 00:23:49.521
and I know it's not so
different as many urban centers,

544
00:23:49.521 --> 00:23:52.546
but these are some of the
things that we're dealing with.

545
00:23:52.894 --> 00:23:55.710
So our aim at Project Mentor was one,

546
00:23:55.710 --> 00:23:58.078
to prevent and reduce violence
in Chicago through supporting

547
00:23:58.078 --> 00:24:00.509
young people in addressing
the impact of trauma

548
00:24:00.509 --> 00:24:02.344
on young people and families
in their neighborhoods

549
00:24:02.344 --> 00:24:05.085
and communities, but also
develop new strategies

550
00:24:05.085 --> 00:24:08.776
for trauma and violence
prevention and reduction, right?

551
00:24:08.776 --> 00:24:11.122
And so, you know, really,
stand in the mill.

552
00:24:11.122 --> 00:24:14.354
We wanted to reduce and
take a stab at reducing

553
00:24:14.354 --> 00:24:15.773
some of the violence in our community,

554
00:24:15.773 --> 00:24:19.367
but also really have some
new strategies around trauma.

555
00:24:19.367 --> 00:24:21.735
Just to share a little
bit about that, too,

556
00:24:21.735 --> 00:24:24.357
is that much of the work
that Dr. Mann was involved in

557
00:24:24.357 --> 00:24:27.109
and even some of the rhetoric associated

558
00:24:27.109 --> 00:24:30.383
with the National Childhood
Traumatic Stress Network

559
00:24:30.383 --> 00:24:32.687
and Illinois Childhood Traumatic Stress,

560
00:24:32.687 --> 00:24:35.289
was engaged in, was mostly geared towards

561
00:24:35.289 --> 00:24:37.796
the child welfare system
and young people in that.

562
00:24:37.796 --> 00:24:39.972
It was important, but
it didn't really get at

563
00:24:39.972 --> 00:24:41.785
some of the community issues.

564
00:24:41.785 --> 00:24:46.126
We also recognize, too,
that even when people

565
00:24:46.126 --> 00:24:48.035
were talking about the community issues,

566
00:24:48.035 --> 00:24:50.488
they weren't dealing with the
structural inequities issue.

567
00:24:50.488 --> 00:24:52.888
Some of the conditions that would create

568
00:24:52.888 --> 00:24:54.158
some of these pieces.

569
00:24:54.158 --> 00:24:56.109
And so we knew we had to begin the process

570
00:24:56.109 --> 00:24:57.688
of addressing something.

571
00:24:57.688 --> 00:25:00.312
So we came up with a
trans-disciplinary process

572
00:25:00.312 --> 00:25:02.125
through our social work department,

573
00:25:02.125 --> 00:25:04.749
our communications media
arts and theater department,

574
00:25:04.749 --> 00:25:07.074
counseling, as well as other CSU faculty,

575
00:25:07.074 --> 00:25:09.815
students, and then our
several community partners,

576
00:25:09.815 --> 00:25:12.460
we designed this program
called Truth 'n Trauma.

577
00:25:12.460 --> 00:25:16.034
Ultimately, you know, dealing
with the truth and trauma.

578
00:25:16.034 --> 00:25:17.981
That's what we call it.

579
00:25:17.981 --> 00:25:21.159
Just some more context about Chicago, too.

580
00:25:21.159 --> 00:25:24.061
Just this past Easter,
we had 45 people shot

581
00:25:24.061 --> 00:25:26.386
over the course of a weekend.

582
00:25:26.386 --> 00:25:28.242
30 people were shot last
week over the course

583
00:25:28.242 --> 00:25:29.895
of the weekend, a similar number.

584
00:25:29.895 --> 00:25:31.633
So it's pretty consistent.

585
00:25:31.633 --> 00:25:34.044
We usually have between 20
and 30 people who are shot

586
00:25:34.044 --> 00:25:36.977
in Chicago during the course of a weekend.

587
00:25:36.977 --> 00:25:39.462
If you can see this,
there are little dots,

588
00:25:39.462 --> 00:25:42.587
show you during the course
of a six-month period,

589
00:25:42.587 --> 00:25:44.891
the amount of people
who were shot, you know.

590
00:25:44.891 --> 00:25:47.750
So those, the little dots,
and they're concentrated

591
00:25:47.750 --> 00:25:49.648
mainly in two areas.

592
00:25:49.648 --> 00:25:54.085
One, south, south of that
Chicago, the word Chicago,

593
00:25:54.085 --> 00:25:56.357
is the south side of Chicago.

594
00:25:56.357 --> 00:25:59.077
And then just west and
northwest is what's considered

595
00:25:59.077 --> 00:26:00.698
the west side of Chicago.

596
00:26:00.698 --> 00:26:02.448
There's some smattering up north,

597
00:26:02.448 --> 00:26:04.701
but ultimately much of it is concentrated

598
00:26:04.701 --> 00:26:07.698
on the south and the
west sides of Chicago.

599
00:26:07.698 --> 00:26:10.578
And again, to start thinking about

600
00:26:10.578 --> 00:26:13.255
these larger issues and the connections,

601
00:26:13.255 --> 00:26:17.617
this is actually, one of
the issues we've dealt with

602
00:26:17.617 --> 00:26:19.868
in Chicago, as well, is school closings.

603
00:26:19.868 --> 00:26:22.492
It's becoming a national
phenomenon around the closing

604
00:26:22.492 --> 00:26:23.910
of public schools.

605
00:26:23.910 --> 00:26:27.441
we had, last year we had
almost 50 public schools close

606
00:26:27.441 --> 00:26:29.339
at one time, during
the course of one year,

607
00:26:29.339 --> 00:26:30.673
which is unprecedented.

608
00:26:30.673 --> 00:26:32.198
Anywhere in the country.

609
00:26:32.198 --> 00:26:33.552
I would argue anywhere in the world,

610
00:26:33.552 --> 00:26:35.312
but particularly anywhere in the U.S.

611
00:26:35.312 --> 00:26:38.415
The only, I think, other district
that had that many schools

612
00:26:38.415 --> 00:26:41.497
close was New Orleans in Katrina.

613
00:26:41.497 --> 00:26:44.430
And just on a side note, I recently heard

614
00:26:44.430 --> 00:26:46.467
there are only like a
couple of public schools

615
00:26:46.467 --> 00:26:50.435
actually left in New
Orleans now after all of 'em

616
00:26:50.435 --> 00:26:52.664
are becoming privatized, are
becoming charter schools.

617
00:26:52.664 --> 00:26:55.427
And so that's a phenomenon
that's national.

618
00:26:55.427 --> 00:26:56.760
I'll talk more about that later,

619
00:26:56.760 --> 00:26:58.733
but if you can see, notice the dots,

620
00:26:58.733 --> 00:27:00.707
they're in the similar places.

621
00:27:00.707 --> 00:27:02.210
They're in some of the same places

622
00:27:02.210 --> 00:27:04.066
where we have a lot of shootings.

623
00:27:04.066 --> 00:27:07.106
This cluster area here,

624
00:27:07.106 --> 00:27:09.730
that's actually where Cabrini Green was.

625
00:27:09.730 --> 00:27:12.844
That was Michael's
school, Sojourner Truth.

626
00:27:12.844 --> 00:27:15.052
And so just to give you
some context about it.

627
00:27:15.052 --> 00:27:17.420
And so we also see, this
is actually school closing

628
00:27:17.420 --> 00:27:19.372
and community foreclosure rates.

629
00:27:19.372 --> 00:27:22.081
So we also talk about the
connection between housing

630
00:27:22.081 --> 00:27:25.548
and schools closing, and
then also the violence too.

631
00:27:25.548 --> 00:27:28.406
So there's an explicit attack, right,

632
00:27:28.406 --> 00:27:31.254
that many argue is happening
in many of our communities

633
00:27:31.254 --> 00:27:33.910
around the poor, and
also the people of color.

634
00:27:33.910 --> 00:27:37.035
And we also know, similar
to many other urban centers,

635
00:27:37.035 --> 00:27:39.435
the racial disparity
in terms of education,

636
00:27:39.435 --> 00:27:43.125
and also the prison pipeline
is also quite huge, right?

637
00:27:43.125 --> 00:27:45.077
So, these are the things and the context

638
00:27:45.077 --> 00:27:47.274
that we're dealing with
associated with that.

639
00:27:47.274 --> 00:27:50.083
And we also understand, too,
that violence isn't just

640
00:27:50.083 --> 00:27:54.005
about Chicago, it's also part
of our national conversation.

641
00:27:54.005 --> 00:27:56.298
It's a part of our national context,

642
00:27:56.298 --> 00:27:59.039
and so we ask the
question, are we, you know,

643
00:27:59.039 --> 00:28:00.639
part of a culture of violence?

644
00:28:00.639 --> 00:28:02.804
The larger reinforcement, you know,

645
00:28:02.804 --> 00:28:05.268
of violent conditions around our world.

646
00:28:05.268 --> 00:28:10.014
And so, as we enter the
one to one discourse

647
00:28:10.014 --> 00:28:13.171
associated with violence,
right, and people exposed to it,

648
00:28:13.171 --> 00:28:15.656
impacted, we also have to keep in the back

649
00:28:15.656 --> 00:28:18.515
of our minds, this
larger national obsession

650
00:28:18.515 --> 00:28:20.947
that we have as a country
associated with it.

651
00:28:20.947 --> 00:28:22.525
You all feeling me a little bit?

652
00:28:22.525 --> 00:28:23.549
Y'all with me?

653
00:28:23.549 --> 00:28:25.363
Okay, all right, just checking, right.

654
00:28:25.363 --> 00:28:30.352
So this is what we're dealing
with, you know, in Chicago.

655
00:28:30.352 --> 00:28:33.862
I also wanna give
another quick context too

656
00:28:33.862 --> 00:28:37.019
to the national conversation
that's a part of a framing

657
00:28:37.019 --> 00:28:38.203
of our work.

658
00:28:38.203 --> 00:28:39.824
You know, it is this idea, you know,

659
00:28:39.824 --> 00:28:43.152
of also the value of black life, right?

660
00:28:43.152 --> 00:28:45.029
You know, there's this challenge.

661
00:28:45.029 --> 00:28:47.045
We know Trayvon, right?

662
00:28:47.045 --> 00:28:50.234
Oscar Grant, also was somebody
who was shot, you know,

663
00:28:50.234 --> 00:28:52.997
in a similar fashion as Trayvon.

664
00:28:52.997 --> 00:28:56.271
And so, their lives matter,
and the young people

665
00:28:56.271 --> 00:28:59.546
who we deal with and we see
who are shot and killed,

666
00:28:59.546 --> 00:29:00.890
their lives matter.

667
00:29:00.890 --> 00:29:02.746
But even those who are still struggling,

668
00:29:02.746 --> 00:29:03.823
their lives matter.

669
00:29:03.823 --> 00:29:05.903
And we always, we ask that question often,

670
00:29:05.903 --> 00:29:08.772
in the work that we do,
particularly amongst the brothers,

671
00:29:08.772 --> 00:29:11.182
we ask this question a
lot amongst ourselves,

672
00:29:11.182 --> 00:29:13.273
you know, what is the value of black life

673
00:29:13.273 --> 00:29:14.691
and the work that we do?

674
00:29:14.691 --> 00:29:16.323
And how do we, you know, really bring

675
00:29:16.323 --> 00:29:18.105
the conversation forward, you know,

676
00:29:18.105 --> 00:29:20.526
to really promote a healing
not just for ourselves,

677
00:29:20.526 --> 00:29:22.915
but also for this larger
country and continue

678
00:29:22.915 --> 00:29:25.741
this discourse associated with the work.

679
00:29:25.741 --> 00:29:29.347
So it's in that context that
we also think about, you know,

680
00:29:29.347 --> 00:29:32.365
for these, for the young men we deal with,

681
00:29:32.365 --> 00:29:34.658
you know, even our
president doesn't escape

682
00:29:34.658 --> 00:29:37.101
from this national assault, right?

683
00:29:37.101 --> 00:29:39.981
You know, this is of course,
these are just some terms

684
00:29:39.981 --> 00:29:41.996
that we talk about, you
know, in the context

685
00:29:41.996 --> 00:29:45.111
of black men, you know,
this idea of scripting,

686
00:29:45.111 --> 00:29:48.033
you know, where black men
are exotic and strange,

687
00:29:48.033 --> 00:29:50.423
violent, incompetent and under-educated,

688
00:29:50.423 --> 00:29:52.396
hyper-sexual, exploitable, right?

689
00:29:52.396 --> 00:29:55.190
And like I said, even our
president can't escape

690
00:29:55.190 --> 00:29:57.366
this kind of onslaught, right?

691
00:29:57.366 --> 00:29:59.457
So, if our president can't escape it,

692
00:29:59.457 --> 00:30:02.358
what makes us think that
our young people can, right?

693
00:30:02.358 --> 00:30:05.056
And then what kind of
work do we have to do

694
00:30:05.056 --> 00:30:07.765
that we have to commit to ourselves

695
00:30:07.765 --> 00:30:10.976
to really transform, you
know, the way we work with,

696
00:30:10.976 --> 00:30:13.109
the way we support our
young people in the world.

697
00:30:13.109 --> 00:30:14.965
Y'all with me still, right?

698
00:30:14.965 --> 00:30:16.405
All right, so let's keep moving.

699
00:30:16.405 --> 00:30:18.154
So our TNT project,

700
00:30:18.154 --> 00:30:21.770
we have 40 young people, high
school aged young people,

701
00:30:21.770 --> 00:30:23.647
ages rough 14 to 18.

702
00:30:23.647 --> 00:30:25.834
You have to be a freshman in high school

703
00:30:25.834 --> 00:30:27.711
or at least that age.

704
00:30:27.711 --> 00:30:31.168
They were selected from the
area surrounding Chicago,

705
00:30:31.168 --> 00:30:33.739
just again, to give you a
little context around Chicago,

706
00:30:33.739 --> 00:30:36.064
around Chicago State.

707
00:30:36.064 --> 00:30:38.666
We are in the greater Roseland community.

708
00:30:38.666 --> 00:30:40.640
You may have heard about greater Roseland,

709
00:30:40.640 --> 00:30:42.176
about a few years ago, a young man

710
00:30:42.176 --> 00:30:43.914
by the name of Darian Albert

711
00:30:43.914 --> 00:30:46.698
was killed and became a YouTube video,

712
00:30:46.698 --> 00:30:48.660
became viral around that,

713
00:30:48.660 --> 00:30:50.602
actually showed him being killed,

714
00:30:50.602 --> 00:30:52.180
and so there was a lot
of national attention

715
00:30:52.180 --> 00:30:53.951
associated with that.

716
00:30:53.951 --> 00:30:56.020
And so, we're right down
the street from there.

717
00:30:56.020 --> 00:30:57.268
So many of the young people

718
00:30:57.268 --> 00:30:59.828
actually go to the high
school that Darian was at,

719
00:30:59.828 --> 00:31:02.356
as well as come from other schools.

720
00:31:02.356 --> 00:31:04.051
So we had young people from probably about

721
00:31:04.051 --> 00:31:06.718
20 different high
schools around that area.

722
00:31:06.718 --> 00:31:10.817
We looked at both traditional
and non-traditional leadership

723
00:31:10.817 --> 00:31:13.381
and we had young people
who were, you know,

724
00:31:13.381 --> 00:31:16.506
in the president of this particular club

725
00:31:16.506 --> 00:31:18.575
and on the football team
and this kind of things.

726
00:31:18.575 --> 00:31:20.175
But we also had young people

727
00:31:20.175 --> 00:31:21.711
who were in street organizations.

728
00:31:21.711 --> 00:31:23.684
We had a young person who
got accepted to Harvard.

729
00:31:23.684 --> 00:31:26.777
We had a young person who was a member,

730
00:31:26.777 --> 00:31:30.628
a leader, a lieutenant in
one of the street gangs.

731
00:31:30.628 --> 00:31:33.721
We also had a young person,
a couple young people,

732
00:31:33.721 --> 00:31:37.784
we had the person, the
guy, he was the first-team

733
00:31:37.784 --> 00:31:40.259
all-city quarterback in Chicago,

734
00:31:40.259 --> 00:31:42.093
as well as the all-city wide receiver.

735
00:31:42.093 --> 00:31:44.771
So we had a real rich mix of young people

736
00:31:44.771 --> 00:31:46.925
who were committed, who
wanted to work around

737
00:31:46.925 --> 00:31:50.616
this issue, and who wanted
to come in and look at doing

738
00:31:50.616 --> 00:31:52.503
this particular work.

739
00:31:52.503 --> 00:31:55.095
Again, you know, I mentioned this idea

740
00:31:55.095 --> 00:31:59.788
of moving outside the box a
little bit and the both/and.

741
00:31:59.788 --> 00:32:04.247
If you will, I just want you
to consider for a second,

742
00:32:04.247 --> 00:32:07.361
your most powerful and impactful

743
00:32:07.361 --> 00:32:09.782
education experience that you ever had.

744
00:32:10.722 --> 00:32:12.907
This is actually a ice-breaker I do,

745
00:32:12.907 --> 00:32:14.508
so you can take it home,
do something with it

746
00:32:14.508 --> 00:32:15.809
if you so choose.

747
00:32:15.809 --> 00:32:18.977
But if you think for a second
about your most powerful

748
00:32:18.977 --> 00:32:22.646
educational, impactful
educational experience,

749
00:32:22.646 --> 00:32:25.291
for most of us, for many
of us, it might not be

750
00:32:25.291 --> 00:32:26.827
in the classroom.

751
00:32:26.827 --> 00:32:28.619
I know those of us who are professors,

752
00:32:28.619 --> 00:32:31.190
we like to believe, that the
things that we have to say,

753
00:32:31.190 --> 00:32:34.027
you know, will really impact
you and transform you,

754
00:32:34.027 --> 00:32:36.971
but ultimately, I think I
remember maybe two words

755
00:32:36.971 --> 00:32:39.712
from my schooling
experiencing in social work,

756
00:32:39.712 --> 00:32:42.218
and that was class
dismissed, right, you know?

757
00:32:42.218 --> 00:32:47.146
So it was my field experience that became

758
00:32:47.146 --> 00:32:50.538
more of the thing that I come back to

759
00:32:50.538 --> 00:32:51.946
time and time again.

760
00:32:51.946 --> 00:32:53.855
I still look at some
of my notes, actually,

761
00:32:53.855 --> 00:32:57.023
from some of my classes, but ultimately,

762
00:32:57.023 --> 00:32:59.205
it was those field experiences.

763
00:32:59.205 --> 00:33:01.146
And so we understand the impact

764
00:33:01.146 --> 00:33:02.704
of an experiential education.

765
00:33:02.704 --> 00:33:04.954
I would argue too, that many
of you might have thought

766
00:33:04.954 --> 00:33:07.951
or might have said that if we
would just break out in groups

767
00:33:07.951 --> 00:33:09.679
and talk about it a little bit,

768
00:33:09.679 --> 00:33:11.748
that your most powerful
educational experience

769
00:33:11.748 --> 00:33:13.999
was also outside of the school completely.

770
00:33:13.999 --> 00:33:15.599
That it happened on the playground,

771
00:33:15.599 --> 00:33:18.063
it happened on a vacation,
or it happened, you know,

772
00:33:18.063 --> 00:33:19.833
in a car riding with your mom.

773
00:33:19.833 --> 00:33:23.385
So we understand that powerful experiences

774
00:33:23.385 --> 00:33:26.627
don't always happen within that context.

775
00:33:26.627 --> 00:33:29.763
Now, think for a moment too,
about your most powerful

776
00:33:29.763 --> 00:33:32.270
healing experience.

777
00:33:32.270 --> 00:33:36.408
How many of us may argue or would share

778
00:33:36.408 --> 00:33:38.403
that our most powerful healing experience

779
00:33:38.403 --> 00:33:41.123
took place in a 50 minute session, right?

780
00:33:41.123 --> 00:33:41.994
You know?

781
00:33:41.994 --> 00:33:44.319
Maybe it took place,
again, on a playground.

782
00:33:44.319 --> 00:33:46.474
Maybe it took place
listening to some music.

783
00:33:46.474 --> 00:33:48.607
Maybe it took place in nature, or maybe

784
00:33:48.607 --> 00:33:50.399
it was a process, right?

785
00:33:50.399 --> 00:33:53.471
Ernest Gaines wrote a book
called A Lesson Before Dying.

786
00:33:53.471 --> 00:33:55.444
Some of you may be familiar with it.

787
00:33:55.444 --> 00:33:57.737
You may have seen the play,
you may have watched the movie.

788
00:33:57.737 --> 00:34:01.037
And in it, the protagonist

789
00:34:01.992 --> 00:34:03.762
was a teacher

790
00:34:03.762 --> 00:34:07.613
who was from the community
but kind of not of it, right?

791
00:34:07.613 --> 00:34:11.048
He had came back to kind
of teach in this small town

792
00:34:11.048 --> 00:34:14.088
after receiving education
and after having become

793
00:34:14.088 --> 00:34:16.061
a little bit more worldly.

794
00:34:16.061 --> 00:34:18.962
There was a young man who
was sentenced to death.

795
00:34:18.962 --> 00:34:22.791
And the grandmother of the
young man wanted this young man

796
00:34:22.791 --> 00:34:25.532
to learn how to read
before he died, right?

797
00:34:25.532 --> 00:34:28.060
And so she reached out to the teacher

798
00:34:28.060 --> 00:34:30.311
and asked the teacher to teach him

799
00:34:30.311 --> 00:34:33.084
before he was killed.

800
00:34:33.084 --> 00:34:37.905
And so he went in, but he
didn't know what to do.

801
00:34:37.905 --> 00:34:41.713
He was struggling, his
privilege got in the way.

802
00:34:41.713 --> 00:34:46.086
He didn't know how to teach,
but he did this powerful work,

803
00:34:46.086 --> 00:34:48.774
just trying to be present
and asking himself

804
00:34:48.774 --> 00:34:50.608
some very tough questions.

805
00:34:50.608 --> 00:34:54.117
And also, in the book,
the work often took place

806
00:34:54.117 --> 00:34:56.805
outside of the actual
teaching session, right?

807
00:34:56.805 --> 00:34:59.248
And so it took place in
different environments.

808
00:34:59.248 --> 00:35:03.471
So I wanted to share that
before we begin the process

809
00:35:03.471 --> 00:35:05.466
of looking even more at our work,

810
00:35:05.466 --> 00:35:09.018
because we knew that we have
to shake up some things.

811
00:35:09.018 --> 00:35:11.161
You know, most of the
people that I work with,

812
00:35:11.161 --> 00:35:13.412
they don't like going to therapy, right?

813
00:35:13.412 --> 00:35:15.108
They don't wanna.

814
00:35:15.108 --> 00:35:18.382
We know the myth, sometimes,
of people of color

815
00:35:18.382 --> 00:35:20.217
and men, also, associated with

816
00:35:20.217 --> 00:35:22.702
coming to traditional sessions,

817
00:35:22.702 --> 00:35:25.294
so we know we have to
shake it up a little bit

818
00:35:25.294 --> 00:35:27.011
and do some more creative things.

819
00:35:27.011 --> 00:35:29.254
Now these young people weren't necessarily

820
00:35:29.254 --> 00:35:30.971
young people who we would seek out

821
00:35:30.971 --> 00:35:33.734
to really provide services for,

822
00:35:33.734 --> 00:35:37.008
but ultimately many of them talk about

823
00:35:37.008 --> 00:35:38.725
a lot of the stress and the trauma

824
00:35:38.725 --> 00:35:40.635
and traumatic experiences
that they had in the community

825
00:35:40.635 --> 00:35:44.421
and they did have, a lot of
serious pieces happen, right?

826
00:35:44.421 --> 00:35:47.418
We grounded ourself in this
idea of restorative practice,

827
00:35:47.418 --> 00:35:49.861
and I'm gonna talk a
little bit about that.

828
00:35:49.861 --> 00:35:53.178
So, restorative practice
is related to this idea

829
00:35:53.178 --> 00:35:54.319
of restorative justice.

830
00:35:54.319 --> 00:35:57.711
We have heard about restorative
justice in different work.

831
00:35:57.711 --> 00:36:02.390
And so, just for some context
around restorative justice,

832
00:36:02.390 --> 00:36:06.288
you know, we talk about this
idea of criminal justice

833
00:36:06.288 --> 00:36:08.464
and how these problems and challenges

834
00:36:08.464 --> 00:36:10.299
of the criminal justice system.

835
00:36:10.299 --> 00:36:11.994
We also talk with our young people

836
00:36:11.994 --> 00:36:13.669
about street justice, right?

837
00:36:13.669 --> 00:36:16.453
You know, when the criminal
justice system doesn't work,

838
00:36:16.453 --> 00:36:18.757
we resort and we rely on street justice.

839
00:36:18.757 --> 00:36:21.050
We handle business on our own, right?

840
00:36:21.050 --> 00:36:24.815
But ultimately, we think that restorative

841
00:36:24.815 --> 00:36:27.503
and even more transformative justice

842
00:36:27.503 --> 00:36:28.987
are critically important.

843
00:36:28.987 --> 00:36:31.078
You know, restorative
justice has been known

844
00:36:31.078 --> 00:36:32.635
to lower recidivism rates, you know,

845
00:36:32.635 --> 00:36:35.163
help deal with PTSD and
all these kind of things.

846
00:36:35.163 --> 00:36:38.299
But we also knew too that
we weren't necessarily

847
00:36:38.299 --> 00:36:40.195
getting at, you know, just trying to deal

848
00:36:40.195 --> 00:36:41.450
with victim and offenders.

849
00:36:41.450 --> 00:36:43.081
Usually, that's the context associated

850
00:36:43.081 --> 00:36:45.513
with restorative justice,
it's about really repairing

851
00:36:45.513 --> 00:36:48.606
the damage between the
victim and its offender.

852
00:36:48.606 --> 00:36:50.398
We were interested more in the idea

853
00:36:50.398 --> 00:36:53.161
of restorative practices,
which look more holistically

854
00:36:53.161 --> 00:36:55.849
at the entire environment
that we were dealing with.

855
00:36:55.849 --> 00:36:58.771
How do we create a culture,
right, a culture of healing?

856
00:36:58.771 --> 00:37:01.790
How do we do that amongst
ourselves, this staff,

857
00:37:01.790 --> 00:37:03.091
this faculty?

858
00:37:03.091 --> 00:37:05.459
How do we do that amongst
ourselves and planning?

859
00:37:05.459 --> 00:37:07.805
How do we do that amongst
ourselves and working

860
00:37:07.805 --> 00:37:09.128
with young people?

861
00:37:09.128 --> 00:37:11.101
How do we help them create the space,

862
00:37:11.101 --> 00:37:12.989
the transformative space for themselves?

863
00:37:12.989 --> 00:37:16.765
So restorative practices looks
at, you know, reducing crime,

864
00:37:16.765 --> 00:37:19.325
but also looks at
improving human behavior,

865
00:37:19.325 --> 00:37:22.759
promoting democracy,
and the work that we do.

866
00:37:22.759 --> 00:37:26.609
And so we needed to and
wanted to ground ourselves

867
00:37:26.609 --> 00:37:28.380
in that philosophy.

868
00:37:28.380 --> 00:37:31.206
So everyone who was a part of our project

869
00:37:31.206 --> 00:37:33.649
went through restorative
practice training, right?

870
00:37:33.649 --> 00:37:35.836
They went through peace
keeping circle training

871
00:37:35.836 --> 00:37:38.662
and other forms and we
talked about it constantly

872
00:37:38.662 --> 00:37:41.520
as we planned, as we did,
the work that we did.

873
00:37:41.520 --> 00:37:44.304
And this is just a little model,
just to give you some more

874
00:37:44.304 --> 00:37:46.192
understanding of how we began

875
00:37:46.192 --> 00:37:47.771
this idea of restorative, right?

876
00:37:47.771 --> 00:37:49.712
Think about the high piece,

877
00:37:49.712 --> 00:37:52.645
the part on the left looks
at this idea of discipline.

878
00:37:52.645 --> 00:37:55.824
At the bottom, a little
bit more of support.

879
00:37:55.824 --> 00:38:00.771
And so, whereas that, not
giving any type of discipline,

880
00:38:00.771 --> 00:38:04.386
right, is looked at as
being too permissive.

881
00:38:05.466 --> 00:38:08.555
But also, just sharing and
telling people what to do,

882
00:38:08.555 --> 00:38:10.528
where to go, how to do it.

883
00:38:10.528 --> 00:38:12.725
Not doing any at all is neglectful, right?

884
00:38:12.725 --> 00:38:14.282
Not even responsible.

885
00:38:14.282 --> 00:38:15.520
It's irresponsible.

886
00:38:15.520 --> 00:38:17.098
Being too punitive is what

887
00:38:17.098 --> 00:38:19.231
our common criminal justice
system offers, right?

888
00:38:19.231 --> 00:38:21.439
And so it's much more authoritarian.

889
00:38:21.439 --> 00:38:23.551
Restorative is much
more about working with,

890
00:38:23.551 --> 00:38:25.076
it's about bringing people together,

891
00:38:25.076 --> 00:38:27.615
it's about really listening,
it's about promoting voice

892
00:38:27.615 --> 00:38:30.441
and actualization in the work that we do.

893
00:38:30.441 --> 00:38:34.420
But even with restorative
justice and restorative practice

894
00:38:34.420 --> 00:38:36.340
and all that kind of
stuff, we also understand

895
00:38:36.340 --> 00:38:38.698
that there are experiences
that people have

896
00:38:38.698 --> 00:38:41.770
that transcend, even that work.

897
00:38:41.770 --> 00:38:44.767
I'm reminded of a time where
I did an anti-racist training

898
00:38:44.767 --> 00:38:47.359
with the young man who was,

899
00:38:47.359 --> 00:38:50.804
well I did it with a group,
but there was a young man there

900
00:38:50.804 --> 00:38:54.100
who was white, and he also
talked about this idea

901
00:38:54.100 --> 00:38:55.508
that I don't see color.

902
00:38:55.508 --> 00:38:57.652
Y'all ever heard that before,
that I don't see, right?

903
00:38:57.652 --> 00:38:59.316
You know, so he was one of those guys.

904
00:38:59.316 --> 00:39:01.534
He'd say, I don't see,
everybody is the same,

905
00:39:01.534 --> 00:39:03.806
and I'm like, I don't
know about that, right?

906
00:39:03.806 --> 00:39:06.504
But that was his come from,

907
00:39:06.504 --> 00:39:09.566
and so we can work with that,
and we did some of the stuff

908
00:39:09.566 --> 00:39:12.797
around, you know, you
deny different people,

909
00:39:12.797 --> 00:39:15.389
and you don't affirm, you
know, the fact that all of us

910
00:39:15.389 --> 00:39:17.000
are beautiful, so there's nothing wrong

911
00:39:17.000 --> 00:39:18.973
with being able to see, you know,

912
00:39:18.973 --> 00:39:20.967
race and all that stuff, right?

913
00:39:20.967 --> 00:39:24.338
And so, he kept persisting.

914
00:39:24.338 --> 00:39:26.962
So we do a lot of experiential
work, and at some point,

915
00:39:26.962 --> 00:39:29.554
you know, he began to
talk about his background.

916
00:39:29.554 --> 00:39:34.012
And the young man was from, his parents

917
00:39:34.012 --> 00:39:35.708
were from Germany.

918
00:39:35.708 --> 00:39:38.662
And it turns out the his
grandfather was actually

919
00:39:38.662 --> 00:39:40.422
a member of the S.S.

920
00:39:40.422 --> 00:39:43.067
And his family had came to the country,

921
00:39:43.067 --> 00:39:45.883
had fled that, and so, in
his work, it was all about,

922
00:39:45.883 --> 00:39:48.667
look, I don't wanna be
associated with that,

923
00:39:48.667 --> 00:39:50.992
you know, I don't wanna
deal with that, you know,

924
00:39:50.992 --> 00:39:52.912
I don't wanna talk about that, so yes,

925
00:39:52.912 --> 00:39:55.259
everybody is the same.

926
00:39:55.259 --> 00:39:57.488
He had denied even parts of himself

927
00:39:57.488 --> 00:39:58.949
that could be affirmative.

928
00:39:58.949 --> 00:40:00.325
He didn't even wanna acknowledge the fact

929
00:40:00.325 --> 00:40:01.669
that he had German culture, you know,

930
00:40:01.669 --> 00:40:03.205
and those things are important to him.

931
00:40:03.205 --> 00:40:04.527
You know, and so we worked,

932
00:40:04.527 --> 00:40:06.266
and we talked about it, and he ultimately

933
00:40:06.266 --> 00:40:09.071
did some healing work
associated with that, right?

934
00:40:09.071 --> 00:40:12.282
But we also acknowledge
that all healing work

935
00:40:12.282 --> 00:40:14.506
can't take place in
that restorative circle

936
00:40:14.506 --> 00:40:16.415
with the offender and the victim,

937
00:40:16.415 --> 00:40:17.802
or even the cultural group.

938
00:40:17.802 --> 00:40:20.009
Sometimes we have to do
that work separately.

939
00:40:20.009 --> 00:40:21.887
Sometimes men have to do work with men

940
00:40:21.887 --> 00:40:23.401
and women have to do work with women.

941
00:40:23.401 --> 00:40:25.417
Sometimes the work has to be done

942
00:40:25.417 --> 00:40:28.062
with just African Americans,
and sometimes we work together.

943
00:40:28.062 --> 00:40:31.646
So, so it's in that context
that we did some of our work.

944
00:40:31.646 --> 00:40:35.240
All our young people were
trained in restorative practices

945
00:40:35.240 --> 00:40:37.779
and peacekeeping circles,
and even facilitating

946
00:40:37.779 --> 00:40:39.678
and dealing with conflict.

947
00:40:39.678 --> 00:40:42.120
Again, we grounded ourselves
with the acknowledgment

948
00:40:42.120 --> 00:40:44.573
that sometimes we need
to do separate healing

949
00:40:44.573 --> 00:40:46.205
in the work that we did.

950
00:40:46.205 --> 00:40:47.869
We also grounded ourself in what we call

951
00:40:47.869 --> 00:40:49.245
trauma-informed practice.

952
00:40:49.245 --> 00:40:51.794
This is Dr. Kimberly Mann, my colleague.

953
00:40:51.794 --> 00:40:54.695
And so, again, I mentioned
Kimberly does a lot

954
00:40:54.695 --> 00:40:57.852
of training with the state
around the work that she does.

955
00:40:57.852 --> 00:41:00.018
This is just some
definitions around trauma

956
00:41:00.018 --> 00:41:02.524
coming from the NIMH website.

957
00:41:02.524 --> 00:41:05.479
The experience of an event by
a child that is mostly painful

958
00:41:05.479 --> 00:41:08.444
or distressful, which often
results in lasting mental

959
00:41:08.444 --> 00:41:09.798
or physical effects.

960
00:41:09.798 --> 00:41:12.987
So we created a training
for the young people,

961
00:41:12.987 --> 00:41:15.515
and the idea was for them to go out

962
00:41:15.515 --> 00:41:18.000
and actually work with
other young people, right?

963
00:41:18.000 --> 00:41:19.440
A youth perspective.

964
00:41:19.440 --> 00:41:21.072
Now, why is this so radical?

965
00:41:21.072 --> 00:41:23.045
'Cause usually we get trained in this,

966
00:41:23.045 --> 00:41:25.275
and ultimately we then do therapy.

967
00:41:25.275 --> 00:41:27.077
Or we then supply services.

968
00:41:27.077 --> 00:41:29.264
We don't talk to them
about what trauma is.

969
00:41:29.264 --> 00:41:30.682
We don't talk to them about, you know,

970
00:41:30.682 --> 00:41:32.496
some of the issues associated with it.

971
00:41:32.496 --> 00:41:34.336
We don't talk about what happened with it.

972
00:41:34.336 --> 00:41:35.776
We kind of water all that stuff down.

973
00:41:35.776 --> 00:41:39.477
So we made it youth-friendly, but we also

974
00:41:39.477 --> 00:41:42.325
went in there raw, we didn't
dumb it down with them, right?

975
00:41:42.325 --> 00:41:44.234
And so these are just some
of the modules that we did

976
00:41:44.234 --> 00:41:45.226
in the training.

977
00:41:45.226 --> 00:41:47.530
Too much, the impact of
traumatic events on you.

978
00:41:47.530 --> 00:41:49.621
We had another module about not enough,

979
00:41:49.621 --> 00:41:51.946
meaning not enough service
so I don't feel the shame

980
00:41:51.946 --> 00:41:53.823
inherent and associated with trauma.

981
00:41:53.823 --> 00:41:56.905
This idea, I have been
changed, how trauma ultimately

982
00:41:56.905 --> 00:42:00.255
impacts and transforms
how people are, you know,

983
00:42:00.255 --> 00:42:01.673
and the experience of it.

984
00:42:01.673 --> 00:42:03.668
So we dealt with that.

985
00:42:03.668 --> 00:42:06.313
Part two dealt with this
idea of resilience, hope,

986
00:42:06.313 --> 00:42:09.331
and restoration, rebuilding
the broken places.

987
00:42:09.331 --> 00:42:11.657
Reconnecting, making a difference, right?

988
00:42:11.657 --> 00:42:14.227
So, we walked them through that process.

989
00:42:14.227 --> 00:42:18.035
Also, all of our staff received
all of this trauma-informed

990
00:42:18.035 --> 00:42:19.528
training as well, right?

991
00:42:19.528 --> 00:42:22.568
And so anybody who did any
other part of the work,

992
00:42:22.568 --> 00:42:24.936
they also were grounded
in these things as well.

993
00:42:24.936 --> 00:42:26.973
I'm gonna go past this, but
this is just some of the stuff.

994
00:42:26.973 --> 00:42:29.714
We taught them basic neurobiology.

995
00:42:29.714 --> 00:42:33.341
In other words, the impact of
traumatic stress on the brain,

996
00:42:33.341 --> 00:42:34.780
the difference between stress and trauma,

997
00:42:34.780 --> 00:42:36.711
the different types of complex trauma

998
00:42:36.711 --> 00:42:38.119
and how that shows up, the difference

999
00:42:38.119 --> 00:42:40.071
between PTSD and stress,
and all that kind of stuff.

1000
00:42:40.071 --> 00:42:42.769
So we did all that kind of work with them.

1001
00:42:42.769 --> 00:42:45.020
And of course, the three Es of trauma,

1002
00:42:45.020 --> 00:42:47.526
the event, the experience,
the effects, right?

1003
00:42:47.526 --> 00:42:49.692
We talked a lot about that in context.

1004
00:42:49.692 --> 00:42:51.590
And what we really
wanted to do was for them

1005
00:42:51.590 --> 00:42:54.097
to have a sense of ownership
around the material,

1006
00:42:54.097 --> 00:42:56.656
but also to contextualize
it, associated with the work

1007
00:42:56.656 --> 00:42:58.630
that they were doing.

1008
00:42:58.630 --> 00:43:00.838
I'm gonna pass this, but this is just our,

1009
00:43:00.838 --> 00:43:04.112
what we also reiterated with our staff.

1010
00:43:04.112 --> 00:43:06.821
We were very sensitive to the
fact that even young people

1011
00:43:06.821 --> 00:43:10.117
who might show up as
being amazingly resilient,

1012
00:43:10.117 --> 00:43:11.706
suddenly, when we begin to talk about

1013
00:43:11.706 --> 00:43:14.277
some of these issues, they
may have different events

1014
00:43:14.277 --> 00:43:16.015
that emerge, and we saw that happen.

1015
00:43:16.015 --> 00:43:18.479
And so, how do we prepare
ourselves as staff,

1016
00:43:18.479 --> 00:43:20.548
both those of us who are
trained as clinicians

1017
00:43:20.548 --> 00:43:23.311
and social workers, and those
of us who aren't, right,

1018
00:43:23.311 --> 00:43:25.241
in the work we do.

1019
00:43:25.241 --> 00:43:27.215
We also grounded ourself in this idea

1020
00:43:27.215 --> 00:43:29.230
of a culturally-centered practice, right?

1021
00:43:29.230 --> 00:43:31.278
There's a West African
word, a Ghanaian word

1022
00:43:31.278 --> 00:43:33.155
called sankofa, right?

1023
00:43:33.155 --> 00:43:35.438
Which simply means understand
the past and move forward.

1024
00:43:35.438 --> 00:43:37.571
Go back and fetch it, is the literal word.

1025
00:43:37.571 --> 00:43:39.523
It's a Ghanaian, a Kan word.

1026
00:43:39.523 --> 00:43:42.211
Ghana's playing the U.S.
right now, soccer, right?

1027
00:43:42.211 --> 00:43:43.960
You know, side note.

1028
00:43:43.960 --> 00:43:46.157
So, so we,

1029
00:43:46.157 --> 00:43:50.968
so we felt that it was
critical to affirm that

1030
00:43:50.968 --> 00:43:54.306
and understand that in terms
of the work that we do.

1031
00:43:54.306 --> 00:43:57.261
This idea of self-reflection
and positionality.

1032
00:43:57.261 --> 00:44:00.343
You know, Patricia Hill
Collins talks about this idea

1033
00:44:00.343 --> 00:44:02.764
of, you know, intersection, right?

1034
00:44:02.764 --> 00:44:06.124
So we really looked at how
race and gender and class

1035
00:44:06.124 --> 00:44:08.801
intersected with who we
were and how we brought that

1036
00:44:08.801 --> 00:44:10.913
to the equation, ultimately how we work,

1037
00:44:10.913 --> 00:44:13.302
and even our young
people, how they operated

1038
00:44:13.302 --> 00:44:16.555
around those things and
had a lot of conversations

1039
00:44:16.555 --> 00:44:18.454
with the about identity
and what does it mean

1040
00:44:18.454 --> 00:44:19.574
to be a black youth.

1041
00:44:19.574 --> 00:44:21.312
What does it mean to be African American?

1042
00:44:21.312 --> 00:44:22.987
What does it mean to be African descended?

1043
00:44:22.987 --> 00:44:24.843
What does it mean to
be female, woman, man,

1044
00:44:24.843 --> 00:44:26.123
all those kind of things.

1045
00:44:26.123 --> 00:44:28.000
Gay, straight, other, right?

1046
00:44:28.000 --> 00:44:31.829
Identify community stakeholders
in the historical political

1047
00:44:31.829 --> 00:44:33.344
context of community.

1048
00:44:33.344 --> 00:44:36.501
We feel this was historically
this critically important

1049
00:44:36.501 --> 00:44:37.749
in the work that we do.

1050
00:44:37.749 --> 00:44:39.818
I mentioned working in Cabrini.

1051
00:44:39.818 --> 00:44:42.207
One of the things that I did,
I was running a community

1052
00:44:42.207 --> 00:44:44.307
health center, and I had to go in and talk

1053
00:44:44.307 --> 00:44:46.588
with some of the elders in the community,

1054
00:44:46.588 --> 00:44:50.439
what we call a local advisory
board in the public housing.

1055
00:44:50.439 --> 00:44:53.478
When I went in to talk to them,
the first thing they said,

1056
00:44:53.478 --> 00:44:55.484
I was working for DePaul
University at the time.

1057
00:44:55.484 --> 00:44:57.958
The first thing they said
was, isn't DePaul coming

1058
00:44:57.958 --> 00:44:59.729
to take our community, you know?

1059
00:44:59.729 --> 00:45:01.425
Tear our buildings down?

1060
00:45:01.425 --> 00:45:04.251
And I didn't know the answer
to that question, right?

1061
00:45:04.251 --> 00:45:06.278
And so all I could say is,
I need to go back and check.

1062
00:45:06.278 --> 00:45:08.688
And the answer was no, they weren't,

1063
00:45:08.688 --> 00:45:11.941
but the reality was that
threat was there, right?

1064
00:45:11.941 --> 00:45:15.418
Mindy Fullilove wrote a
book called Root Shock.

1065
00:45:15.418 --> 00:45:18.095
If you haven't read it, I
think it's an important read.

1066
00:45:18.095 --> 00:45:20.527
Because in it, she talks
about the traumatic experience

1067
00:45:20.527 --> 00:45:22.949
associated with displacement in housing,

1068
00:45:22.949 --> 00:45:25.338
and what happens associated with that.

1069
00:45:25.338 --> 00:45:27.844
So understanding history in a community

1070
00:45:27.844 --> 00:45:30.564
is critically important
and very unreported, right?

1071
00:45:30.564 --> 00:45:33.721
And again, understanding these
larger structural forces,

1072
00:45:33.721 --> 00:45:37.902
I mentioned about schools,
about housing, about education.

1073
00:45:37.902 --> 00:45:40.611
We impact, you know, a lot
of those kind of things.

1074
00:45:40.611 --> 00:45:44.238
We also worked around this idea
of youth-adult partnerships.

1075
00:45:44.238 --> 00:45:46.904
Really understanding what that meant

1076
00:45:46.904 --> 00:45:50.669
from a positive youth
development perspective.

1077
00:45:50.669 --> 00:45:53.869
How that might be different in
an African American context.

1078
00:45:53.869 --> 00:45:56.194
Which I think is different.

1079
00:45:56.194 --> 00:45:58.893
So we did all these things.

1080
00:45:58.893 --> 00:46:02.274
They did research, we trained
them on research methods.

1081
00:46:02.274 --> 00:46:04.162
So we have four major groups.

1082
00:46:04.162 --> 00:46:07.383
One was this idea of working
and creating a trauma workshop

1083
00:46:07.383 --> 00:46:10.572
or primary presentation.

1084
00:46:10.572 --> 00:46:12.684
We were careful not to
call it a training, right?

1085
00:46:12.684 --> 00:46:15.564
Another group actually
did, conducted their own

1086
00:46:15.564 --> 00:46:17.025
research study.

1087
00:46:17.025 --> 00:46:19.713
Another group created a theater product.

1088
00:46:19.713 --> 00:46:24.011
And another group
actually did all filming.

1089
00:46:24.011 --> 00:46:25.515
They did a lot of media stuff

1090
00:46:25.515 --> 00:46:27.328
and so they were involved in that.

1091
00:46:27.328 --> 00:46:29.771
And we did some other things
within the context of that.

1092
00:46:29.771 --> 00:46:31.467
And you can see a little bit

1093
00:46:31.467 --> 00:46:33.419
of the theater group in practice.

1094
00:46:33.419 --> 00:46:35.947
They went out, they did
trauma presentations.

1095
00:46:35.947 --> 00:46:38.314
They worked individually,
they worked in schools.

1096
00:46:38.314 --> 00:46:41.194
They did, the theater,
they created a wonderful,

1097
00:46:41.194 --> 00:46:43.423
amazing theater piece.

1098
00:46:43.423 --> 00:46:46.069
They had social media that they did.

1099
00:46:46.069 --> 00:46:49.012
They did research, advocacy
stuff, they did teach-ins.

1100
00:46:49.012 --> 00:46:51.156
So they did a lot of
really wonderful work.

1101
00:46:51.156 --> 00:46:54.399
I'm gonna show you a
little clip about the work.

1102
00:46:54.399 --> 00:46:56.489
It's only about a minute long,

1103
00:46:56.489 --> 00:46:59.230
and it just shows some of the things

1104
00:46:59.230 --> 00:47:01.513
that they were doing and
some of the activities

1105
00:47:01.513 --> 00:47:02.782
that they were engaged in.

1106
00:47:02.782 --> 00:47:04.568
Let's see if we can pull it up.

1107
00:47:07.294 --> 00:47:09.603
Here we go.

1108
00:47:11.859 --> 00:47:13.922
Ah, we don't have any sound.

1109
00:47:14.142 --> 00:47:16.269
We did a lot of work to get sound.

1110
00:47:18.387 --> 00:47:19.874
All right.

1111
00:47:36.519 --> 00:47:38.913
Where's my tech person?

1112
00:47:55.375 --> 00:47:56.958
Nope.

1113
00:47:57.935 --> 00:47:59.236
She's gone?

1114
00:47:59.236 --> 00:48:00.713
Okay.

1115
00:48:01.070 --> 00:48:02.963
All right.

1116
00:48:04.484 --> 00:48:06.339
So we gonna keep moving

1117
00:48:06.339 --> 00:48:08.526
and I'll just try to talk through it.

1118
00:48:08.526 --> 00:48:09.704
So.

1119
00:48:15.043 --> 00:48:17.319
They were able to,

1120
00:48:18.317 --> 00:48:21.543
like I say, we filmed a lot
of the work that we did.

1121
00:48:24.056 --> 00:48:26.098
There we go.

1122
00:48:31.789 --> 00:48:33.602
Now it's not showing up at all.

1123
00:48:33.602 --> 00:48:35.991
All right, so, we filmed
a lot of work that we did,

1124
00:48:35.991 --> 00:48:37.666
and maybe we can show a clip later

1125
00:48:37.666 --> 00:48:39.212
once they find a tech person.

1126
00:48:39.212 --> 00:48:42.444
But one of the things
that we were able to do,

1127
00:48:42.444 --> 00:48:44.513
we tried to catch a lot
of footage of the work,

1128
00:48:44.513 --> 00:48:47.692
but also get them to show
a little bit of that,

1129
00:48:47.692 --> 00:48:50.337
so some of the footage you
were getting ready to see

1130
00:48:50.337 --> 00:48:53.035
was some of the work that they had did

1131
00:48:53.035 --> 00:48:56.000
and just some general pieces about this.

1132
00:48:56.000 --> 00:48:58.070
This is an August Wilson quote.

1133
00:48:58.070 --> 00:48:59.627
I wanted to just highlight really quick,

1134
00:48:59.627 --> 00:49:01.760
that also grounded our work.

1135
00:49:01.760 --> 00:49:03.968
August says that you can
confront the dark parts

1136
00:49:03.968 --> 00:49:06.688
of yourself and work to
banish them with illumination

1137
00:49:06.688 --> 00:49:07.818
and forgiveness.

1138
00:49:07.818 --> 00:49:09.435
Your willingness to
wrestle with your demons

1139
00:49:09.435 --> 00:49:11.483
will cause your angels to sing.

1140
00:49:11.483 --> 00:49:15.963
Use your pain as this fuel, as
a reminder of your strength.

1141
00:49:15.963 --> 00:49:19.216
That's August Wilson, the
great Pulitzer playwright,

1142
00:49:19.216 --> 00:49:21.488
and also an ancestor, right?

1143
00:49:21.488 --> 00:49:24.272
We grounded our work with this idea

1144
00:49:24.272 --> 00:49:26.458
of creating this
transformative, space, you know

1145
00:49:26.458 --> 00:49:28.357
for people to heal and the work.

1146
00:49:28.357 --> 00:49:32.122
We also look at healing
and this idea of healing

1147
00:49:32.122 --> 00:49:36.026
not just as a, again, an individual thing.

1148
00:49:36.026 --> 00:49:38.457
It's also an inherently political act.

1149
00:49:38.457 --> 00:49:42.830
Probably Fereddi said that
social workers, right,

1150
00:49:42.830 --> 00:49:46.841
that we have to think about
our work as a political act,

1151
00:49:46.841 --> 00:49:49.145
you know, seeking out, you know, this idea

1152
00:49:49.145 --> 00:49:50.649
of a democratic ideal.

1153
00:49:50.649 --> 00:49:53.016
So even within the context
of a healing space,

1154
00:49:53.016 --> 00:49:54.830
you know, and the transformative space,

1155
00:49:54.830 --> 00:49:57.592
we think about this idea
of advocacy, what it means

1156
00:49:57.592 --> 00:50:02.232
around, you know, how black
bodies are marginalized

1157
00:50:02.232 --> 00:50:06.861
in the world, and ultimately
what it means to reclaim

1158
00:50:06.861 --> 00:50:09.623
agency and identity and
the work that you would do

1159
00:50:09.623 --> 00:50:10.925
inherently in that.

1160
00:50:10.925 --> 00:50:14.402
What voice, the power and the
beauty of restorative practice

1161
00:50:14.402 --> 00:50:17.975
and restorative justice
is that it brings voice

1162
00:50:17.975 --> 00:50:22.572
to people who may not have
always exercised that.

1163
00:50:22.572 --> 00:50:26.412
And so what we saw was
very powerful voices emerge

1164
00:50:26.412 --> 00:50:28.886
from our young people,
you know, by being able

1165
00:50:28.886 --> 00:50:32.257
to create an egalitarian
space in the work that we do.

1166
00:50:32.257 --> 00:50:35.648
That transferred over
into many other facets

1167
00:50:35.648 --> 00:50:39.360
of their lives in terms of
the work that they were doing.

1168
00:50:39.360 --> 00:50:41.685
So that became a critical piece.

1169
00:50:41.685 --> 00:50:46.685
We use the arts, also, as
a strong and powerful place

1170
00:50:46.816 --> 00:50:49.696
to really demonstrate the level of work.

1171
00:50:49.696 --> 00:50:52.011
You know, this is just
showing some of the pieces.

1172
00:50:52.011 --> 00:50:54.453
The theater professor who worked with them

1173
00:50:54.453 --> 00:50:57.376
used theater of the oppressed, you know,

1174
00:50:57.376 --> 00:50:59.882
by Augusto Boal and his work, you know,

1175
00:50:59.882 --> 00:51:01.781
and really grounding their work.

1176
00:51:01.781 --> 00:51:04.223
And so you can see, you know,
they're using some movement

1177
00:51:04.223 --> 00:51:05.962
and it's all about, you know, mindfulness

1178
00:51:05.962 --> 00:51:08.074
and group unity and those kind of things.

1179
00:51:08.074 --> 00:51:11.657
We also talk a lot about
this idea of radical healing.

1180
00:51:11.657 --> 00:51:13.023
What does that mean?

1181
00:51:13.023 --> 00:51:15.529
Both to transformative justice,
you know, the connection

1182
00:51:15.529 --> 00:51:18.068
between the prion-industrial
complex and schooling

1183
00:51:18.068 --> 00:51:19.347
and ultimately the impact.

1184
00:51:19.347 --> 00:51:22.110
The young people started a
campaign called CPS Bully.

1185
00:51:22.110 --> 00:51:23.987
That's Chicago Public School Bully.

1186
00:51:23.987 --> 00:51:26.728
And they kind of flipped the
switch on traditional bullying,

1187
00:51:26.728 --> 00:51:28.307
right, you know we think about bullying,

1188
00:51:28.307 --> 00:51:30.493
we think about, you know,
there's a bully and he's beating

1189
00:51:30.493 --> 00:51:32.211
up on the weaker kid.

1190
00:51:32.211 --> 00:51:34.557
Well they look at it,
sometimes institutions bully.

1191
00:51:34.557 --> 00:51:35.410
Right?

1192
00:51:35.410 --> 00:51:36.989
You know, sometimes it's the schools

1193
00:51:36.989 --> 00:51:39.432
that are doing that.

1194
00:51:39.432 --> 00:51:40.807
And so when you talk about

1195
00:51:40.807 --> 00:51:42.790
these heightened surveillance states

1196
00:51:42.790 --> 00:51:45.244
that many of our young
people are witnessing,

1197
00:51:45.244 --> 00:51:47.495
we go through schools, and
I don't know about out here,

1198
00:51:47.495 --> 00:51:51.089
but we got metal detectors, and
then we got security police,

1199
00:51:51.089 --> 00:51:54.086
Chicago police in our hallways.

1200
00:51:54.086 --> 00:51:55.782
They're constantly under surveillance,

1201
00:51:55.782 --> 00:51:59.547
constantly dealing with
micro-aggressions on a daily basis

1202
00:51:59.547 --> 00:52:01.030
associated with that.

1203
00:52:01.030 --> 00:52:02.747
This constant assault.

1204
00:52:02.747 --> 00:52:04.464
We looked at the global
to local connection.

1205
00:52:04.464 --> 00:52:06.928
So, again, we talk about the shooting

1206
00:52:06.928 --> 00:52:08.741
and everybody laments that,
but how are these guns

1207
00:52:08.741 --> 00:52:10.426
getting into our communities, right?

1208
00:52:10.426 --> 00:52:11.920
Where they coming from?

1209
00:52:11.920 --> 00:52:13.850
How can we have these
conversations about that?

1210
00:52:13.850 --> 00:52:15.823
You know, so we brought
that into the space.

1211
00:52:15.823 --> 00:52:17.679
We do ritual and cultural affirmation.

1212
00:52:17.679 --> 00:52:20.474
We are unapologetically black
in the space that we work

1213
00:52:20.474 --> 00:52:22.394
to create, right?

1214
00:52:22.394 --> 00:52:25.583
And so we really move into
the affirmative about the work

1215
00:52:25.583 --> 00:52:27.204
in terms of identity and development,

1216
00:52:27.204 --> 00:52:29.455
but also really talking
explicitly, so everybody

1217
00:52:29.455 --> 00:52:32.526
across the board, whether you
black, white, Asian, Latino,

1218
00:52:32.526 --> 00:52:34.009
it doesn't matter, you come in this space,

1219
00:52:34.009 --> 00:52:36.771
you claim who you are,
and you speak that peace.

1220
00:52:36.771 --> 00:52:38.597
We looked at different faith perspectives

1221
00:52:38.597 --> 00:52:41.434
associated with healing,
whether that was Christian

1222
00:52:41.434 --> 00:52:45.103
or Islam, you know, or even
indigenous African religions.

1223
00:52:45.103 --> 00:52:47.929
What does it mean from
the spiritual side of it?

1224
00:52:47.929 --> 00:52:50.094
Sometimes we shy away from those pieces,

1225
00:52:50.094 --> 00:52:51.833
but we know in many of our communities,

1226
00:52:51.833 --> 00:52:53.454
that's where people go to get healing,

1227
00:52:53.454 --> 00:52:55.705
so how can we understand that?

1228
00:52:55.705 --> 00:52:58.126
We looked at the body and things like yoga

1229
00:52:58.126 --> 00:53:00.441
and mindfulness practice
and how these methods.

1230
00:53:00.441 --> 00:53:03.278
We did yoga together and
we did those kind of things

1231
00:53:03.278 --> 00:53:05.368
to work through.

1232
00:53:05.368 --> 00:53:07.203
We did asset mapping, for example,

1233
00:53:07.203 --> 00:53:10.776
and the research on healing
spaces in the community beyond,

1234
00:53:10.776 --> 00:53:12.493
you know, what are the healing spaces?

1235
00:53:12.493 --> 00:53:15.277
Where does a young person go
to get what he or she needs.

1236
00:53:15.277 --> 00:53:17.005
You know, are there healing spaces, right?

1237
00:53:17.005 --> 00:53:18.743
And they talked about
everything from the barber shop

1238
00:53:18.743 --> 00:53:21.463
to the laundry mat, you know,
and when you think about it,

1239
00:53:21.463 --> 00:53:23.436
'cause a laundry mat, right?

1240
00:53:23.436 --> 00:53:26.732
You know a laundry mat is a
space where you gotta sit there

1241
00:53:26.732 --> 00:53:29.079
and you be there, and
so families go there,

1242
00:53:29.079 --> 00:53:31.468
and they sit, and they're together,

1243
00:53:31.468 --> 00:53:33.953
and they talk and they laugh
and they do whatever, right?

1244
00:53:33.953 --> 00:53:36.246
So there's all these
different type of spaces

1245
00:53:36.246 --> 00:53:38.081
that they identify, you know, around that,

1246
00:53:38.081 --> 00:53:39.214
and so again, we were looking

1247
00:53:39.214 --> 00:53:41.006
at some of those kind of things.

1248
00:53:41.006 --> 00:53:43.278
This was a little bit
on an advocacy campaign.

1249
00:53:43.278 --> 00:53:45.603
It, you know, they were
talking about, you know,

1250
00:53:45.603 --> 00:53:47.875
this is a little public
announcement and it says,

1251
00:53:47.875 --> 00:53:49.965
Trauma, it seemed so far
away until it arrived

1252
00:53:49.965 --> 00:53:51.778
right at your front porch.

1253
00:53:51.778 --> 00:53:53.794
So in other words, you think, you know,

1254
00:53:53.794 --> 00:53:56.354
about child soldiers
in this piece outside,

1255
00:53:56.354 --> 00:53:58.861
but actually it's in
your community, you know,

1256
00:53:58.861 --> 00:54:00.951
and actually, even if you are

1257
00:54:00.951 --> 00:54:04.876
living in a faraway suburb, it's still,

1258
00:54:04.876 --> 00:54:06.877
the violence is still very much there.

1259
00:54:06.877 --> 00:54:08.765
And so, kind of thinking about that.

1260
00:54:08.765 --> 00:54:10.066
I don't know if it's gonna come up,

1261
00:54:10.066 --> 00:54:13.032
but I was just gonna show,
maybe not necessarily a clip,

1262
00:54:13.032 --> 00:54:17.010
but one of our, that's
actually Dennis Johnson.

1263
00:54:17.010 --> 00:54:19.553
You saw him, now he's gone, right?

1264
00:54:21.138 --> 00:54:23.303
He was one of our young persons, right?

1265
00:54:23.303 --> 00:54:25.137
And Dennis, let me tell you about Dennis.

1266
00:54:25.137 --> 00:54:26.919
Dennis was one of them young people who,

1267
00:54:26.919 --> 00:54:31.334
we didn't, he was on his
way, he was graduating

1268
00:54:31.334 --> 00:54:35.857
from high school, and he
didn't have a college to go to.

1269
00:54:35.857 --> 00:54:38.694
We saw him, I recognized
his talent, his energy,

1270
00:54:38.694 --> 00:54:40.176
and pulled him in.

1271
00:54:40.176 --> 00:54:41.947
We started him, we got him in college,

1272
00:54:41.947 --> 00:54:44.795
and eventually he became a strong advocate

1273
00:54:44.795 --> 00:54:46.747
for not just the work that we do,

1274
00:54:46.747 --> 00:54:49.093
but also the work and
the issues in general.

1275
00:54:49.093 --> 00:54:50.299
That was Dennis.

1276
00:54:50.299 --> 00:54:52.741
Dennis was on Melissa
Harris-Perry's show that day.

1277
00:54:52.741 --> 00:54:54.522
he's been on it a few times.

1278
00:54:54.522 --> 00:54:57.989
And some other shows, and
he's got a hell of a quote.

1279
00:54:57.989 --> 00:55:01.119
I don't know if I'll be
able to pull it up, but.

1280
00:55:02.212 --> 00:55:03.748
No, I'm not gonna be able to pull it up,

1281
00:55:03.748 --> 00:55:05.487
but the quote is, he said,

1282
00:55:05.487 --> 00:55:10.223
We won't, We won't have peace
in our communities because,

1283
00:55:10.223 --> 00:55:12.900
until you learn how to make
a profit from peace, right?

1284
00:55:12.900 --> 00:55:14.105
You know.

1285
00:55:14.105 --> 00:55:16.100
And so, I think that's
what he was talking about

1286
00:55:16.100 --> 00:55:17.145
on that show.

1287
00:55:17.145 --> 00:55:19.139
Dennis is an amazing young man.

1288
00:55:19.139 --> 00:55:23.971
Dennis actually, just again
to talk about his work.

1289
00:55:23.971 --> 00:55:27.192
Eventually, I said, we got him in school,

1290
00:55:27.192 --> 00:55:30.381
and now, through the work he was able to,

1291
00:55:30.381 --> 00:55:32.440
he just got accepted to
University of Michigan's

1292
00:55:32.440 --> 00:55:35.096
Urban Planning Program
with a full ride, right?

1293
00:55:35.096 --> 00:55:37.410
So we're real excited about
his work and what he's doing.

1294
00:55:37.410 --> 00:55:39.853
Couldn't get him social
work, you know, but

1295
00:55:39.853 --> 00:55:41.783
he's still doing it, you know?

1296
00:55:41.783 --> 00:55:43.447
And that's just a demonstration.

1297
00:55:43.447 --> 00:55:45.911
A lot of times, we talk about,
in these diversity channels

1298
00:55:45.911 --> 00:55:47.468
about, you hear people talk about,

1299
00:55:47.468 --> 00:55:49.367
I can't find any talented people,

1300
00:55:49.367 --> 00:55:51.020
but, you know, the reality is

1301
00:55:51.020 --> 00:55:53.601
there are hundreds and
thousands of Dennis's out there,

1302
00:55:53.601 --> 00:55:55.692
you know, doing the work.

1303
00:55:55.692 --> 00:55:59.105
Just a little bit about
our research evaluation.

1304
00:55:59.105 --> 00:56:01.419
We did multiple methods of evaluation

1305
00:56:01.419 --> 00:56:04.833
where we looked at
interviews, we did surveys,

1306
00:56:04.833 --> 00:56:06.507
we did an empowerment survey.

1307
00:56:06.507 --> 00:56:08.939
We saw a lot of, we did a pre- and post,

1308
00:56:08.939 --> 00:56:11.008
and also a program control group.

1309
00:56:11.008 --> 00:56:13.259
We couldn't do a randomized
trial because of timing,

1310
00:56:13.259 --> 00:56:16.192
but we saw positive change
in relation to skills,

1311
00:56:16.192 --> 00:56:19.882
use of arts, self esteem,
attitudes about self.

1312
00:56:19.882 --> 00:56:22.960
Staff really talked about this idea

1313
00:56:22.960 --> 00:56:25.957
of the trauma-informed

1314
00:56:25.957 --> 00:56:28.954
practice being very strong
and powerful in the context

1315
00:56:28.954 --> 00:56:31.386
of the work that we were doing.

1316
00:56:31.386 --> 00:56:33.690
And also about the restorative practices

1317
00:56:33.690 --> 00:56:35.684
in creating an environment and a context

1318
00:56:35.684 --> 00:56:39.119
that really became a transformative space.

1319
00:56:39.119 --> 00:56:41.679
You know, where young people
really became change agents

1320
00:56:41.679 --> 00:56:43.204
before their very eyes.

1321
00:56:43.204 --> 00:56:45.412
And they looked, at the bottom,
I think, is the key quote.

1322
00:56:45.412 --> 00:56:48.174
This idea of not a service
or a mental health activity,

1323
00:56:48.174 --> 00:56:50.030
but something that was really liberative

1324
00:56:50.030 --> 00:56:51.406
in healing the community.

1325
00:56:51.406 --> 00:56:53.443
They understood there was
mental health stuff there,

1326
00:56:53.443 --> 00:56:56.089
but ultimately, this idea of liberation

1327
00:56:56.089 --> 00:56:58.766
became a very strong part of what we did.

1328
00:56:58.766 --> 00:57:02.851
Staff became less judgmental
and also really internalized

1329
00:57:02.851 --> 00:57:04.643
a lot of the process.

1330
00:57:04.643 --> 00:57:07.234
Talked about, you know, this
idea of really understanding

1331
00:57:07.234 --> 00:57:10.136
even the deeper way and
things that our young people

1332
00:57:10.136 --> 00:57:11.728
are dealing with.

1333
00:57:11.728 --> 00:57:13.914
And they saw young people
even become more trusting

1334
00:57:13.914 --> 00:57:16.997
and supportive, more responsive,

1335
00:57:16.997 --> 00:57:19.204
increased critical
thinking, all these things

1336
00:57:19.204 --> 00:57:20.548
in terms of the work.

1337
00:57:20.548 --> 00:57:22.554
This is just a quote from
one of the young persons.

1338
00:57:22.554 --> 00:57:24.591
He says, Now I see gang-related
violence as something

1339
00:57:24.591 --> 00:57:26.447
that could hurt people in different ways.

1340
00:57:26.447 --> 00:57:28.004
It's not just about the gangs itself,

1341
00:57:28.004 --> 00:57:29.636
it affects everybody around it.

1342
00:57:29.636 --> 00:57:31.673
It even affects the
person that's doing it.

1343
00:57:31.673 --> 00:57:34.137
The people who oppress people
also oppress themselves.

1344
00:57:34.137 --> 00:57:36.323
So it affects everybody
and me knowing about trauma

1345
00:57:36.323 --> 00:57:38.403
helped me to pick what's
going on with gangs, right?

1346
00:57:38.403 --> 00:57:41.144
So the deeper critical
analysis, even of young people,

1347
00:57:41.144 --> 00:57:43.214
because sometimes young
people can be really critical

1348
00:57:43.214 --> 00:57:44.653
of other young people, you know.

1349
00:57:44.653 --> 00:57:45.844
Why'd you do that?

1350
00:57:45.844 --> 00:57:47.454
You know, I don't wanna
be bothered with you.

1351
00:57:47.454 --> 00:57:48.770
But really understanding the healing

1352
00:57:48.770 --> 00:57:50.775
that needs to take place within that.

1353
00:57:50.775 --> 00:57:54.923
I'm gonna wrap up and just
really talk about, you know,

1354
00:57:54.923 --> 00:57:56.695
this quote right here.

1355
00:57:56.695 --> 00:57:58.274
You know, this is Maya Angelou.

1356
00:57:58.274 --> 00:58:00.268
She says, Courage may
be the most important

1357
00:58:00.268 --> 00:58:02.049
of all virtues because without it,

1358
00:58:02.049 --> 00:58:04.119
one cannot practice any other virtue

1359
00:58:04.119 --> 00:58:05.974
with any consistency, right?

1360
00:58:05.974 --> 00:58:08.417
So within the context of the work we do,

1361
00:58:08.417 --> 00:58:10.412
you know, we believe
it takes courage to do

1362
00:58:10.412 --> 00:58:13.014
this very hard work, this very tough work,

1363
00:58:13.014 --> 00:58:15.222
you know, that we talk about what we do.

1364
00:58:15.222 --> 00:58:17.611
I'm not gonna be able to actually,

1365
00:58:17.611 --> 00:58:19.862
we're not gonna hear this
video, but this is actually

1366
00:58:19.862 --> 00:58:22.837
just showing you a little
bit of the theater.

1367
00:58:22.837 --> 00:58:24.869
Unfortunately.

1368
00:58:26.571 --> 00:58:28.143
Is it gonna play?

1369
00:58:28.362 --> 00:58:30.080
Yeah, it's supposed to be playing.

1370
00:58:30.080 --> 00:58:34.325
So in their work, they're
actually doing something,

1371
00:58:34.325 --> 00:58:38.804
a particular technique that really,

1372
00:58:40.104 --> 00:58:42.793
almost like a sculpture, but not quite.

1373
00:58:42.793 --> 00:58:45.225
It's like a staging
process called tableaus

1374
00:58:45.225 --> 00:58:49.876
where they create a
particular frame or pose

1375
00:58:49.876 --> 00:58:53.609
based on your own story,
based on your own reality.

1376
00:58:53.609 --> 00:58:57.257
And so, the young people
were able to actually

1377
00:58:57.257 --> 00:59:00.552
write their own play
using their own journals.

1378
00:59:00.552 --> 00:59:04.944
It became a very powerful
story, a very powerful way

1379
00:59:04.944 --> 00:59:07.699
of telling a story about themselves.

1380
00:59:07.699 --> 00:59:09.549
And I really wish you could see it,

1381
00:59:09.549 --> 00:59:11.469
'cause it's really dope, right?

1382
00:59:11.469 --> 00:59:16.162
But in it, they weave every
part of the work that we do,

1383
00:59:16.162 --> 00:59:19.575
from the structural work, you
know, to talking about issues

1384
00:59:19.575 --> 00:59:22.103
such as gossip, and
ultimately gossip impacts,

1385
00:59:22.103 --> 00:59:24.961
you know, their lives and
the work that they do.

1386
00:59:24.961 --> 00:59:29.238
And so, in that sense,
you know, we really honor

1387
00:59:29.238 --> 00:59:32.043
the work that they did, and
really lift up, you know,

1388
00:59:32.043 --> 00:59:33.835
the struggle inherent that, you know,

1389
00:59:33.835 --> 00:59:35.691
we have to continue to do.

1390
00:59:35.691 --> 00:59:38.731
Gwendolyn Brooks, the poet laureate,

1391
00:59:38.731 --> 00:59:43.371
once said that writing is
like a delicious agony, right?

1392
00:59:43.371 --> 00:59:46.502
You know, that you suffer through it

1393
00:59:46.502 --> 00:59:48.560
and you don't always know,
if you tell the truth,

1394
00:59:48.560 --> 00:59:50.374
you don't know if it's gonna be good,

1395
00:59:50.374 --> 00:59:52.976
if people wanna hear it, and
ultimately the impact of that.

1396
00:59:52.976 --> 00:59:55.184
And I think social work
is a lot like that, right?

1397
00:59:55.184 --> 00:59:56.741
It's kind of like a delicious agony,

1398
00:59:56.741 --> 01:00:00.592
that we love it, we love to
help, we love to support,

1399
01:00:00.592 --> 01:00:02.864
but we don't always
know the outcome in it,

1400
01:00:02.864 --> 01:00:06.191
but in the struggle we must stay, right?

1401
01:00:06.191 --> 01:00:08.229
And in the struggle we
must work, you know.

1402
01:00:08.229 --> 01:00:10.991
So I continue to be
committed to this work.

1403
01:00:10.991 --> 01:00:13.295
Again, I wish I could've
showed you the video stuff,

1404
01:00:13.295 --> 01:00:15.108
you know, as life happens, you know.

1405
01:00:15.108 --> 01:00:16.868
It's just me talking, but it's all good.

1406
01:00:16.868 --> 01:00:19.001
So I really appreciate you all listening

1407
01:00:19.001 --> 01:00:22.862
and sharing, and thank you
all for having me here.

1408
01:00:22.862 --> 01:00:26.131
(applause)

1409
01:00:40.344 --> 01:00:42.104
- Thank you, Dr. Harden.

1410
01:00:42.104 --> 01:00:44.408
We'll have some time for Q and A's,

1411
01:00:44.408 --> 01:00:47.261
and what I'd like to do

1412
01:00:47.261 --> 01:00:51.228
is to do a reflection Q and A,

1413
01:00:51.228 --> 01:00:56.039
or I call that my funk style
Q and A, I think it was that.

1414
01:00:56.039 --> 01:01:00.308
So, we are a relationally oriented school,

1415
01:01:00.308 --> 01:01:02.633
so when we are asking questions, even,

1416
01:01:02.633 --> 01:01:05.065
we want to build relation.

1417
01:01:05.065 --> 01:01:07.646
But what I'd like folks to do

1418
01:01:07.646 --> 01:01:09.459
is when you come up for questions,

1419
01:01:09.459 --> 01:01:11.091
and first of all, I would like

1420
01:01:11.091 --> 01:01:13.853
to prioritize student questions

1421
01:01:14.336 --> 01:01:17.653
So students, everybody, you guys first.

1422
01:01:17.653 --> 01:01:19.765
And there are two microphones here,

1423
01:01:19.765 --> 01:01:21.258
so you can line up.

1424
01:01:21.258 --> 01:01:25.386
As you ask questions, I would
like you to reflect something

1425
01:01:25.386 --> 01:01:28.319
that you heard in this lecture.

1426
01:01:28.319 --> 01:01:30.751
So you could say, I heard this,

1427
01:01:30.751 --> 01:01:32.606
how did that resonate with you?

1428
01:01:32.606 --> 01:01:34.857
Something that, you
know, struck your heart,

1429
01:01:34.857 --> 01:01:36.905
something that you thought about,

1430
01:01:36.905 --> 01:01:38.547
something that touched you.

1431
01:01:38.547 --> 01:01:40.713
So share one thing, not long.

1432
01:01:40.713 --> 01:01:42.313
I'm not talking a speech here.

1433
01:01:42.313 --> 01:01:46.355
So, something that you can reflect

1434
01:01:46.355 --> 01:01:49.747
from what you heard from
Dr. Harden's lecture.

1435
01:01:49.747 --> 01:01:52.349
And then ask a question.

1436
01:01:52.349 --> 01:01:55.090
So, the microphone's open,

1437
01:01:55.090 --> 01:01:58.365
so please, if you want to ask questions,

1438
01:01:58.365 --> 01:02:00.332
please come to the microphone.

1439
01:02:21.570 --> 01:02:22.780
- Thank you so much for coming.

1440
01:02:22.780 --> 01:02:25.009
I really appreciate it,
and I've learned a lot.

1441
01:02:25.009 --> 01:02:27.192
I'm in my third year, year coming.

1442
01:02:28.482 --> 01:02:31.159
My thesis was on the sort of practices

1443
01:02:31.159 --> 01:02:34.273
with, mostly people who were incarcerated,

1444
01:02:34.273 --> 01:02:36.854
so I really appreciate hearing that and

1445
01:02:36.854 --> 01:02:39.425
a lot of what I learned was
that very little research

1446
01:02:39.425 --> 01:02:41.793
is done in the social work field.

1447
01:02:41.793 --> 01:02:44.214
And so my question is kind of two parts.

1448
01:02:44.214 --> 01:02:46.326
First off, how did you, how was it

1449
01:02:46.326 --> 01:02:47.787
working with the communities?

1450
01:02:47.787 --> 01:02:49.835
And getting people to buy in.

1451
01:02:49.835 --> 01:02:51.712
And secondly, what do you recommend

1452
01:02:51.712 --> 01:02:53.984
to bring that more to
the social work field,

1453
01:02:53.984 --> 01:02:56.288
especially in master's programs?

1454
01:02:56.288 --> 01:02:59.818
So, I'll take it, and elsewhere,
to keep this conversation

1455
01:02:59.818 --> 01:03:02.581
going, because there's such
little research published

1456
01:03:02.581 --> 01:03:04.700
in the social work field on the subject.

1457
01:03:04.700 --> 01:03:06.769
- Right, thank you.

1458
01:03:06.769 --> 01:03:08.817
Much of the literature is dominated

1459
01:03:08.817 --> 01:03:10.811
in the criminal justice world, right?

1460
01:03:10.811 --> 01:03:12.274
There're a lot of people talking about it,

1461
01:03:12.274 --> 01:03:13.435
thinking about it.

1462
01:03:13.435 --> 01:03:16.646
I would argue, and I
haven't heard this much,

1463
01:03:16.646 --> 01:03:20.475
but here's what my guess is,
is that a lot of social workers

1464
01:03:20.475 --> 01:03:23.888
say, duh, we've been doing
this for a long time, right?

1465
01:03:23.888 --> 01:03:25.882
And so now, we've been doing group work

1466
01:03:25.882 --> 01:03:28.346
and peace circles, you
know, and isn't this just

1467
01:03:28.346 --> 01:03:30.102
an encounter group in the 70s, right?

1468
01:03:30.102 --> 01:03:32.374
You know, so a lot of
folks have been saying,

1469
01:03:32.374 --> 01:03:34.624
I think critiquing, or at
least not understanding

1470
01:03:34.624 --> 01:03:35.904
in that way.

1471
01:03:35.904 --> 01:03:40.032
But what's happening is that
there is, at least in Chicago,

1472
01:03:40.032 --> 01:03:43.680
it's really become a
very powerful movement,

1473
01:03:43.680 --> 01:03:47.306
because again, this
idea of community voice,

1474
01:03:47.306 --> 01:03:51.509
where it's that, and one of
the ways it's really grounded,

1475
01:03:51.509 --> 01:03:54.452
for a lot of people, is
inside of peace circles.

1476
01:03:54.452 --> 01:03:55.988
Peacekeeping circles.

1477
01:03:55.988 --> 01:03:58.473
And one of the things that
happens with that, again,

1478
01:03:58.473 --> 01:04:01.844
it's kind of a therapy style, if you will,

1479
01:04:01.844 --> 01:04:05.577
but people really get a
chance to speak and it's more,

1480
01:04:05.577 --> 01:04:07.412
it's more lay practitioners, if you will,

1481
01:04:07.412 --> 01:04:09.278
it's not necessarily people
who are highly trained

1482
01:04:09.278 --> 01:04:13.619
in social work or psychology,
and it's not therapy.

1483
01:04:13.619 --> 01:04:17.214
But it is an opportunity for
people to exercise some agency,

1484
01:04:17.214 --> 01:04:21.299
so it's become, in a lot of
ways, a very common movement

1485
01:04:21.299 --> 01:04:23.155
around the work that we do.

1486
01:04:23.155 --> 01:04:25.778
And so, there are some of
us talking and looking,

1487
01:04:25.778 --> 01:04:27.922
and actually some of the
things we wanted to do

1488
01:04:27.922 --> 01:04:29.607
was really begin that process.

1489
01:04:29.607 --> 01:04:32.978
We're actually having a
conference next week in Chicago

1490
01:04:32.978 --> 01:04:35.026
with a lot of people who are doing

1491
01:04:35.026 --> 01:04:36.508
this work or coming together.

1492
01:04:36.508 --> 01:04:38.524
And actually, we're gonna talk
about some of the evaluation

1493
01:04:38.524 --> 01:04:41.603
and research stuff to kind of
push the envelope around that.

1494
01:04:41.603 --> 01:04:44.679
But what we see, and this is
the problem and the challenge,

1495
01:04:44.679 --> 01:04:48.401
why it's a joint advocacy
piece around the school system,

1496
01:04:48.401 --> 01:04:50.907
is that that's the place
where it's taking place a lot,

1497
01:04:50.907 --> 01:04:54.875
is in our, a lot of people
are doing, really creating.

1498
01:04:54.875 --> 01:04:58.502
I would argue, I don't
know, a few months ago,

1499
01:05:01.582 --> 01:05:04.656
the Department of Education
and the Department of Justice

1500
01:05:04.656 --> 01:05:09.093
both Arnie Duncan and Holder came out

1501
01:05:09.093 --> 01:05:12.783
and talked about this idea
of discipline practices

1502
01:05:12.783 --> 01:05:15.407
and that we need to do
and we need guidelines

1503
01:05:15.407 --> 01:05:17.871
that don't have any money
or force behind them, right.

1504
01:05:17.871 --> 01:05:20.698
But ultimately these guidelines
about looking at issues

1505
01:05:20.698 --> 01:05:23.513
of race in schools and understanding,

1506
01:05:23.513 --> 01:05:25.113
and looking at disciplines in practice.

1507
01:05:25.113 --> 01:05:27.471
And we argue that some of that
came out of the conversation

1508
01:05:27.471 --> 01:05:29.273
in Chicago that's been happening.

1509
01:05:29.273 --> 01:05:31.961
But the problem is, that if
the principals haven't bought

1510
01:05:31.961 --> 01:05:34.417
into it, there's a problem.

1511
01:05:34.417 --> 01:05:37.457
I don't know if people
have seen this show on CNN

1512
01:05:37.457 --> 01:05:39.948
that's been coming on,
in the spring it came on,

1513
01:05:39.948 --> 01:05:42.295
about Chicago, called Chicago.

1514
01:05:42.295 --> 01:05:44.268
But we really don't like that show,

1515
01:05:44.268 --> 01:05:46.103
just to let you know.

1516
01:05:46.103 --> 01:05:49.335
But, it did feature Elizabeth
Dozier, who's a principal

1517
01:05:49.335 --> 01:05:50.860
at Fenger High School.

1518
01:05:50.860 --> 01:05:52.001
And Fenger instituted

1519
01:05:52.001 --> 01:05:54.017
a lot of restorative justice practices.

1520
01:05:54.017 --> 01:05:56.555
Robert Spicer's featured in
that, he's a friend of mine.

1521
01:05:56.555 --> 01:05:58.945
And so they do some incredible work

1522
01:05:58.945 --> 01:06:01.526
around really trying to
institute it as a school,

1523
01:06:01.526 --> 01:06:03.840
and there's different
schools that have popped up

1524
01:06:03.840 --> 01:06:07.253
and also within some of
the juvenile reform piece.

1525
01:06:07.253 --> 01:06:09.323
So I think we're pushing the envelope.

1526
01:06:09.323 --> 01:06:11.690
I think work like this
helps push that envelope.

1527
01:06:11.690 --> 01:06:16.170
But I think it's, first understand
that it can be evaluated.

1528
01:06:16.170 --> 01:06:18.911
You know, national recidivism
rates were the first place

1529
01:06:18.911 --> 01:06:22.698
to look at that, but it also
is associated with other things

1530
01:06:22.698 --> 01:06:25.087
that we can begin to
process and look at, so.

1531
01:06:25.087 --> 01:06:26.713
All right.

1532
01:06:31.732 --> 01:06:34.254
- [Voiceover] Can students
please come to the microphone?

1533
01:06:37.257 --> 01:06:38.787
- Good evening.

1534
01:06:39.497 --> 01:06:42.654
- As far as one-zero, U of I Institute.

1535
01:06:42.654 --> 01:06:44.350
The game is over.

1536
01:06:44.350 --> 01:06:45.396
- [Voiceover] Two-one.

1537
01:06:45.396 --> 01:06:47.038
- All right.

1538
01:06:47.038 --> 01:06:48.830
How'd y'all know that?

1539
01:06:48.830 --> 01:06:49.483
Right.

1540
01:06:49.483 --> 01:06:50.529
(laughter)

1541
01:06:50.529 --> 01:06:51.712
It's all right.

1542
01:06:51.712 --> 01:06:53.270
It's okay.

1543
01:06:53.270 --> 01:06:55.478
We had a thing running here
where he's supposed to tell me

1544
01:06:55.478 --> 01:06:57.397
the score, you know, actually, when we.

1545
01:06:57.397 --> 01:06:58.882
No, I'm just kidding.

1546
01:06:58.882 --> 01:07:00.476
That's fine.

1547
01:07:01.901 --> 01:07:03.031
- So I wanna say two things.

1548
01:07:03.031 --> 01:07:07.358
I appreciate your conversation
about your opening point

1549
01:07:07.358 --> 01:07:09.822
about your daughter at home.

1550
01:07:09.822 --> 01:07:13.031
Mine is with me because
she herself protested

1551
01:07:13.031 --> 01:07:14.268
at my leaving.

1552
01:07:14.268 --> 01:07:15.905
(laughter)

1553
01:07:20.672 --> 01:07:23.095
Dennis, the young man
that you worked with,

1554
01:07:23.095 --> 01:07:24.404
I think that he was on to something.

1555
01:07:24.404 --> 01:07:28.926
He said that until peace is profitable,

1556
01:07:28.926 --> 01:07:31.070
we won't see peace in our communities.

1557
01:07:31.070 --> 01:07:33.064
And I think he was speaking
to something really important

1558
01:07:33.064 --> 01:07:36.083
that I find is often left
out of conversations,

1559
01:07:36.083 --> 01:07:41.083
when, even when the focus
is anti-racism, right?

1560
01:07:41.181 --> 01:07:44.991
And that is, the conversation
about economic inequality.

1561
01:07:44.991 --> 01:07:49.375
And so, you're telling us about
Chicago schools being closed

1562
01:07:49.375 --> 01:07:53.065
and violence in communities,

1563
01:07:53.065 --> 01:07:58.065
and I wonder how, as social
workers, we begin to tackle

1564
01:07:58.217 --> 01:08:02.494
a particular agenda around
economic inequality,

1565
01:08:02.494 --> 01:08:07.208
and if the focus on anti-racism
turns us away from that.

1566
01:08:07.208 --> 01:08:09.058
Right?

1567
01:08:09.437 --> 01:08:11.293
Let me just clarify what I'm saying.

1568
01:08:11.293 --> 01:08:12.478
So.

1569
01:08:15.161 --> 01:08:16.921
- I think I got you.

1570
01:08:16.921 --> 01:08:18.873
- Yeah, I wanna make
sure everybody gets me.

1571
01:08:18.873 --> 01:08:19.961
- That's fine, that's fine.

1572
01:08:19.961 --> 01:08:22.067
- So.

1573
01:08:23.140 --> 01:08:25.518
This work is restorative, right?

1574
01:08:25.518 --> 01:08:28.462
There's something about that word

1575
01:08:28.462 --> 01:08:33.315
that for me means that we are
restoring or fixing something

1576
01:08:33.315 --> 01:08:35.683
inside something that's broken.

1577
01:08:35.683 --> 01:08:38.605
Inside something larger, right?

1578
01:08:38.605 --> 01:08:42.204
And we are social workers and we're it.

1579
01:08:42.328 --> 01:08:45.965
The buck kind of stops with us.

1580
01:08:45.965 --> 01:08:48.578
I feel like we are the
ones that have to come in

1581
01:08:48.578 --> 01:08:50.594
and tackle that something larger.

1582
01:08:50.594 --> 01:08:54.050
And what's the mission
and who becomes the target

1583
01:08:54.050 --> 01:08:56.652
of that work?

1584
01:08:56.652 --> 01:09:00.300
Is it those inside the larger structure?

1585
01:09:00.300 --> 01:09:03.830
Or is it those outside?

1586
01:09:03.830 --> 01:09:05.804
And what is the mission,
what's the agenda?

1587
01:09:05.804 --> 01:09:08.982
Is it anti-racist, or is it anti-poverty?

1588
01:09:08.982 --> 01:09:11.222
Anti-capitalism.

1589
01:09:11.222 --> 01:09:13.856
Anti-inequality.

1590
01:09:13.856 --> 01:09:16.598
And is that, and how's the conversation

1591
01:09:18.048 --> 01:09:20.651
get pulled away from that
when we start talking

1592
01:09:20.651 --> 01:09:22.827
about healing inside communities

1593
01:09:22.827 --> 01:09:27.396
and racism and how people
of color are impacted?

1594
01:09:27.658 --> 01:09:28.833
- Right thank you.

1595
01:09:28.833 --> 01:09:30.635
Beautiful question.

1596
01:09:30.635 --> 01:09:31.888
So.

1597
01:09:33.515 --> 01:09:37.238
First, I think the question
of economic justice

1598
01:09:37.238 --> 01:09:38.784
and inequality, right?

1599
01:09:38.784 --> 01:09:40.907
That's supposed to be part
of our mission too, right?

1600
01:09:40.907 --> 01:09:42.507
As social workers, so.

1601
01:09:42.507 --> 01:09:46.453
But we also know from
texts like Fallen Angels

1602
01:09:46.453 --> 01:09:49.173
and things like that that
we've gotten away from that.

1603
01:09:49.173 --> 01:09:53.855
In Nicaragua, right, when
the Sandinistas overthrew

1604
01:09:53.855 --> 01:09:56.298
the government, one of
the first things they did,

1605
01:09:56.298 --> 01:09:59.018
they shut down the social
work program, right?

1606
01:09:59.018 --> 01:10:01.897
Because they basically said
that we were agents of the state

1607
01:10:01.897 --> 01:10:05.619
and ultimately we're not in the game

1608
01:10:05.619 --> 01:10:09.640
of changing society, but in
really keeping the status quo.

1609
01:10:09.640 --> 01:10:12.498
And I'm reminded of a Tupac quote, right?

1610
01:10:12.498 --> 01:10:14.631
And Tupac said, you know,
The first time somebody

1611
01:10:14.631 --> 01:10:17.138
knocks on the door and
says they're hungry,

1612
01:10:17.138 --> 01:10:19.111
the people in the room, they eatin' good,

1613
01:10:19.111 --> 01:10:21.383
they say, aw, you know, come
back in a second, you know.

1614
01:10:21.383 --> 01:10:23.196
And the person comes
back and he goes away,

1615
01:10:23.196 --> 01:10:25.425
and they knock on the door
again and they come back again,

1616
01:10:25.425 --> 01:10:27.441
and they're, you know,
a little bit more upset

1617
01:10:27.441 --> 01:10:30.065
and agitated, you know,
and they still hungry.

1618
01:10:30.065 --> 01:10:31.932
And they say go away
again and come back later.

1619
01:10:31.932 --> 01:10:34.299
And then next time, they
kickin' in the door, right?

1620
01:10:34.299 --> 01:10:39.120
I believe that's the state
we're closing in on, right?

1621
01:10:39.120 --> 01:10:41.659
And I think the conversation is both/and.

1622
01:10:41.659 --> 01:10:43.078
It's not either/or.

1623
01:10:43.078 --> 01:10:44.699
And I think that's the challenge

1624
01:10:44.699 --> 01:10:46.811
is that we have to deal with both the race

1625
01:10:46.811 --> 01:10:48.571
and the economic issue.

1626
01:10:48.571 --> 01:10:51.920
We aren't in a post-racial world, right?

1627
01:10:51.920 --> 01:10:55.077
And that's part of the
myth, the fallacy of Obama

1628
01:10:55.077 --> 01:10:57.519
and all that is that, somehow or other

1629
01:10:57.519 --> 01:10:59.237
we've arrived, you know?

1630
01:10:59.237 --> 01:11:02.831
And that, if we have to, and
we can't ignore the inequities

1631
01:11:02.831 --> 01:11:04.591
associated with the
criminal justice system,

1632
01:11:04.591 --> 01:11:06.340
the education system, all
these different systems,

1633
01:11:06.340 --> 01:11:07.780
and what's happening.

1634
01:11:07.780 --> 01:11:09.817
An we also can't ignore the poverty issue

1635
01:11:09.817 --> 01:11:11.140
and the economic issue.

1636
01:11:11.140 --> 01:11:12.910
I think that's part of the problem

1637
01:11:12.910 --> 01:11:14.882
is that we try to separate them, you know,

1638
01:11:14.882 --> 01:11:17.741
and look at 'em one or the other

1639
01:11:17.741 --> 01:11:19.543
and I think that's false.

1640
01:11:19.543 --> 01:11:21.058
I think it's a both/and.

1641
01:11:21.058 --> 01:11:23.564
And I think part of the work that we do

1642
01:11:23.564 --> 01:11:26.679
is inherently saying,
claim all of who you are

1643
01:11:26.679 --> 01:11:29.580
to begin the process with
speaking about all of what you are

1644
01:11:29.580 --> 01:11:32.065
experiencing and all
of where we need to go.

1645
01:11:32.065 --> 01:11:34.689
And so, whether it's our young people

1646
01:11:34.689 --> 01:11:37.259
or whether it's my students,
or whether it's the other work,

1647
01:11:37.259 --> 01:11:41.938
larger work in our city,
I think the challenge is,

1648
01:11:41.938 --> 01:11:44.796
for social workers, is that so many people

1649
01:11:44.796 --> 01:11:48.604
have been silenced, right, from
claiming all of who they are

1650
01:11:48.604 --> 01:11:51.975
and all of where they need to
go or where they should go.

1651
01:11:51.975 --> 01:11:55.217
And so that's why some of
our work as organizers,

1652
01:11:55.217 --> 01:11:57.755
is sometimes just about voice, right,

1653
01:11:57.755 --> 01:12:00.497
and really bringing the people
together around exercising

1654
01:12:00.497 --> 01:12:03.750
in order to work on a common cause.

1655
01:12:03.750 --> 01:12:06.448
I heard somewhere, somebody says that hope

1656
01:12:06.448 --> 01:12:09.083
is not an individual thing,
it's a community piece.

1657
01:12:09.083 --> 01:12:10.405
It's a collective.

1658
01:12:10.405 --> 01:12:12.837
And within that, you know,
we really need to ask

1659
01:12:12.837 --> 01:12:15.205
the question of what is our
collective voice around that,

1660
01:12:15.205 --> 01:12:18.838
whether it's our 99% voice
or whatever, you know.

1661
01:12:18.838 --> 01:12:20.065
But it's time.

1662
01:12:20.065 --> 01:12:22.625
You know, we had a
conversation coming here

1663
01:12:22.625 --> 01:12:24.556
about industry.

1664
01:12:24.556 --> 01:12:27.947
And, you know, I'm in
a city that, you know,

1665
01:12:27.947 --> 01:12:29.569
there are no jobs.

1666
01:12:29.569 --> 01:12:32.470
You know, and the jobs aren't coming back.

1667
01:12:32.470 --> 01:12:34.326
And so what's gonna happen.

1668
01:12:34.326 --> 01:12:36.395
And we having this
false promise about work

1669
01:12:36.395 --> 01:12:37.260
and what that means,

1670
01:12:37.260 --> 01:12:38.935
and so how are we gonna
recreate something.

1671
01:12:38.935 --> 01:12:40.258
And some of that has to come

1672
01:12:40.258 --> 01:12:41.975
with knocking the whole system down.

1673
01:12:41.975 --> 01:12:44.833
And so there's a lot of
talk about, for example,

1674
01:12:44.833 --> 01:12:47.500
Angela Davis' work, of
course, in critical resistance

1675
01:12:47.500 --> 01:12:50.358
and what it means to completely
dismantle the system.

1676
01:12:50.358 --> 01:12:53.046
I don't like, I'm not, I'm not,

1677
01:12:53.046 --> 01:12:55.723
honestly, I like transformative
justice a little better

1678
01:12:55.723 --> 01:12:57.718
than I do restorative justice, right,

1679
01:12:57.718 --> 01:12:59.616
because the question is,
are we trying to return

1680
01:12:59.616 --> 01:13:02.411
to something in the '60s or
'70s or something, right?

1681
01:13:02.411 --> 01:13:03.701
That was already broke?

1682
01:13:03.701 --> 01:13:05.589
Or are we trying to make something new?

1683
01:13:05.589 --> 01:13:08.629
But the reality is that,
you know, we are beginning

1684
01:13:08.629 --> 01:13:11.434
a process of really
identifying the language

1685
01:13:11.434 --> 01:13:13.439
associated with healing,
community healing,

1686
01:13:13.439 --> 01:13:15.829
that actually looks at
transformative speech.

1687
01:13:15.829 --> 01:13:17.407
I said a lot, I don't know if I answered

1688
01:13:17.407 --> 01:13:19.402
some of your question,
but I think, you know,

1689
01:13:19.402 --> 01:13:21.076
I think it's a both/and.

1690
01:13:21.076 --> 01:13:23.764
I think we can't, we can
no longer do the either/or.

1691
01:13:25.054 --> 01:13:28.905
And part of it is because
my Marxist friends,

1692
01:13:28.905 --> 01:13:32.393
I always critique them
about culture, right?

1693
01:13:32.393 --> 01:13:33.801
We cannot ignore culture.

1694
01:13:33.801 --> 01:13:36.126
We cannot ignore the
affirmation of that, you know.

1695
01:13:36.126 --> 01:13:38.686
And so often that gets left
out of the conversation

1696
01:13:38.686 --> 01:13:40.403
when we begin the process.

1697
01:13:40.403 --> 01:13:43.045
That is critically important
to the black community.

1698
01:13:43.045 --> 01:13:44.783
At least to the community I come from,

1699
01:13:44.783 --> 01:13:46.959
is to affirm that and
to affirm the identity

1700
01:13:46.959 --> 01:13:49.796
after the onslaught,
partly with capitalism,

1701
01:13:49.796 --> 01:13:52.068
but ultimately also too
with white supremacy.

1702
01:13:52.068 --> 01:13:54.471
There has to be a
healing that takes place,

1703
01:13:54.471 --> 01:13:56.028
you know, associated with that.

1704
01:13:56.028 --> 01:13:59.975
There's a saying we say that
there is no mental escape,

1705
01:13:59.975 --> 01:14:03.878
there's no physical escape from
a mental plantation, right?

1706
01:14:03.878 --> 01:14:07.131
That plantation is both
white and black, you know,

1707
01:14:07.131 --> 01:14:08.689
with Twelve Years a Slave.

1708
01:14:08.689 --> 01:14:10.609
Whatever critique we wanna
have about that movie,

1709
01:14:10.609 --> 01:14:13.371
it shows we're all
impacted by that illness,

1710
01:14:13.371 --> 01:14:15.669
that disease, you know, so.

1711
01:14:27.168 --> 01:14:28.890
- I think that's a really
big, important question,

1712
01:14:28.890 --> 01:14:31.215
and I wanted to ask
you sort of a more of a

1713
01:14:31.215 --> 01:14:32.484
micro-level question.

1714
01:14:32.484 --> 01:14:34.255
I really appreciated
what you had to say about

1715
01:14:34.255 --> 01:14:37.860
non-traditional leadership,
and I really appreciated

1716
01:14:37.860 --> 01:14:40.697
that concept of bringing
that in as a strength

1717
01:14:40.697 --> 01:14:43.236
of the youth that participated,

1718
01:14:43.236 --> 01:14:48.236
and I wondered about what
the sort of time commitment

1719
01:14:48.430 --> 01:14:50.638
of this program was for the youth.

1720
01:14:50.638 --> 01:14:54.200
And I wondered about, given how stressful

1721
01:14:54.200 --> 01:14:58.168
some of their lives were
and some of the communities

1722
01:14:58.168 --> 01:14:59.821
and environments they were living in,

1723
01:14:59.821 --> 01:15:02.701
if that impacted their
participation at all,

1724
01:15:02.701 --> 01:15:05.895
or how that affected the program.

1725
01:15:06.200 --> 01:15:07.666
- Right.

1726
01:15:07.810 --> 01:15:09.762
So, just answering in reverse.

1727
01:15:09.762 --> 01:15:13.372
They saw our space as a safe space.

1728
01:15:13.869 --> 01:15:17.303
And so often, whether it was
because they had brothers

1729
01:15:17.303 --> 01:15:19.746
and sisters at home, or it
was an unsafe environment,

1730
01:15:19.746 --> 01:15:20.993
or whatever was going on,

1731
01:15:20.993 --> 01:15:22.113
they didn't have a lot of spaces

1732
01:15:22.113 --> 01:15:23.553
where they could just
do themselves, right?

1733
01:15:23.553 --> 01:15:26.988
So even in understanding in
developing a youth space, right,

1734
01:15:26.988 --> 01:15:30.636
there's something to be said
about really stepping back

1735
01:15:30.636 --> 01:15:33.099
and claiming what that is
in partnership with them,

1736
01:15:33.099 --> 01:15:35.350
and you know, what that means,
and so we really worked hard

1737
01:15:35.350 --> 01:15:37.995
to create a youth space,
a black space, you know,

1738
01:15:37.995 --> 01:15:40.064
and also a do you space, you know,

1739
01:15:40.064 --> 01:15:41.920
so whatever that meant.

1740
01:15:41.920 --> 01:15:46.877
We met two days a week after
school, two and a half hours,

1741
01:15:46.877 --> 01:15:49.728
and then on weekends for about
three or four hours, right?

1742
01:15:49.728 --> 01:15:52.191
And so it's taken on
different variations of that

1743
01:15:52.191 --> 01:15:54.581
over the course of the
last year and a half.

1744
01:15:54.581 --> 01:15:56.533
And so sometimes we still do some of that

1745
01:15:56.533 --> 01:15:58.826
and then we'll break
off and just concentrate

1746
01:15:58.826 --> 01:16:02.180
on a Saturday or depending
on what's going on, yeah.

1747
01:16:02.271 --> 01:16:04.825
So maybe about six or seven hours a week.

1748
01:16:21.263 --> 01:16:23.215
- [Voiceover] Was a Tupac resurrection?

1749
01:16:23.215 --> 01:16:25.833
- Uh, yes.

1750
01:16:26.297 --> 01:16:29.402
- [Voiceover] My main question is coming.

1751
01:16:29.402 --> 01:16:32.210
You seemed to talk a lot about
impact your program has had

1752
01:16:32.210 --> 01:16:33.757
on young men.

1753
01:16:33.757 --> 01:16:35.784
I was just curious if you
could talk about the impact

1754
01:16:35.784 --> 01:16:37.618
on young women.

1755
01:16:37.618 --> 01:16:38.919
- Both/and.

1756
01:16:38.919 --> 01:16:41.404
That's unfortunate you
couldn't see the video,

1757
01:16:41.404 --> 01:16:44.818
because it is, it's so rich
around the both/and of that.

1758
01:16:44.818 --> 01:16:48.572
Right, that, that space,
Truth 'n Trauma was young men

1759
01:16:48.572 --> 01:16:49.991
and young women.

1760
01:16:49.991 --> 01:16:52.806
And so, I mean it just so happened

1761
01:16:52.806 --> 01:16:54.686
that it was mostly the young women,

1762
01:16:54.686 --> 01:16:56.358
some of the young men,
but mostly the young women

1763
01:16:56.358 --> 01:16:58.295
who create the theater
piece, right, so it really,

1764
01:16:58.295 --> 01:16:59.362
you should see that.

1765
01:16:59.362 --> 01:17:00.663
But it was both/and.

1766
01:17:00.663 --> 01:17:03.799
So, I do work with young men,

1767
01:17:03.799 --> 01:17:05.815
I do a lot of work, but we also do both.

1768
01:17:05.815 --> 01:17:08.503
A lot of Project Mentor was
both young men and young women.

1769
01:17:08.503 --> 01:17:12.065
And so, you know, we see positive results.

1770
01:17:12.065 --> 01:17:15.361
Different, unique pieces,
unique stories within that.

1771
01:17:15.361 --> 01:17:18.284
But then, some similar issues, right.

1772
01:17:18.284 --> 01:17:21.003
So, so the work becomes, how do you do

1773
01:17:21.003 --> 01:17:24.182
the gender affirmation, right,
needed within that work,

1774
01:17:24.182 --> 01:17:27.200
and what that meant, and
sort of sharing the space,

1775
01:17:27.200 --> 01:17:30.336
being in solidarity, you
know, even with other women,

1776
01:17:30.336 --> 01:17:33.280
you know, who are working in
the cohort with us, right?

1777
01:17:34.656 --> 01:17:38.650
I think it had a powerful
impact on them as well, yeah.

1778
01:17:50.868 --> 01:17:53.055
- [Voiceover] I appreciate
you talking about how

1779
01:17:53.055 --> 01:17:55.935
your intention was not to do a lot of,

1780
01:17:55.935 --> 01:17:59.717
to focus on anti-violence
work, but the youth

1781
01:17:59.717 --> 01:18:02.778
that you worked with really
kept coming back to that

1782
01:18:02.778 --> 01:18:05.124
as an issue in their
community and in their lives.

1783
01:18:05.124 --> 01:18:07.844
I thought that was a really
great piece, especially for us

1784
01:18:07.844 --> 01:18:09.785
as social workers,
thinking about the client

1785
01:18:09.785 --> 01:18:12.505
as kind of our leader and
where we go with them.

1786
01:18:12.505 --> 01:18:15.428
My question, you know, relates
around the anti-violence

1787
01:18:15.428 --> 01:18:16.804
work that you're doing.

1788
01:18:16.804 --> 01:18:18.617
I don't know if that's
what you call it, but.

1789
01:18:18.617 --> 01:18:21.326
Really, how do you partner
with other organizations

1790
01:18:21.326 --> 01:18:24.931
in Chicago like Ceasefire,
who's doing similar work?

1791
01:18:24.931 --> 01:18:27.613
Or maybe not similar work, I don't know.

1792
01:18:28.833 --> 01:18:31.911
- So there are, part of the beauty

1793
01:18:31.911 --> 01:18:34.514
of being in the academy

1794
01:18:34.514 --> 01:18:37.809
is that I get to see very
powerful work taking place.

1795
01:18:37.809 --> 01:18:40.865
And so, you know,

1796
01:18:41.265 --> 01:18:42.940
a lot of people talk
about The Interrupters,

1797
01:18:42.940 --> 01:18:46.033
so Ameena, for example, the
young lady who was featured

1798
01:18:46.033 --> 01:18:48.027
in Interrupters, is one of our partners

1799
01:18:48.027 --> 01:18:51.558
and connected and other
folks who were doing work

1800
01:18:51.558 --> 01:18:54.768
with Cure Violence is
what they're called now.

1801
01:18:54.768 --> 01:18:58.388
So we work with all different types

1802
01:18:58.388 --> 01:19:00.207
of organizations,

1803
01:19:01.167 --> 01:19:03.625
whether those are youth
groups, adult groups.

1804
01:19:03.625 --> 01:19:06.643
I personally work with a
lot of different groups

1805
01:19:06.643 --> 01:19:10.472
in consulting and training folks

1806
01:19:10.472 --> 01:19:12.563
in different methods as well, right?

1807
01:19:12.563 --> 01:19:15.250
Because I think, again,
particularly when we talk about

1808
01:19:15.250 --> 01:19:17.874
this idea of healing,
right, and even moving

1809
01:19:17.874 --> 01:19:20.935
out the clinical space,
there's still not a lot of work

1810
01:19:20.935 --> 01:19:22.663
and understanding what that looks like

1811
01:19:22.663 --> 01:19:24.839
and what that means, and
dealing with even some of

1812
01:19:24.839 --> 01:19:26.514
the economic issues, you know,

1813
01:19:26.514 --> 01:19:28.860
and the economic injustice issues.

1814
01:19:28.860 --> 01:19:31.996
So, we're talking a lot about
this issue of school closing

1815
01:19:31.996 --> 01:19:35.548
is really looking at the
privatization associated

1816
01:19:35.548 --> 01:19:37.596
with so many different institutions,

1817
01:19:37.596 --> 01:19:39.153
including the criminal justice system

1818
01:19:39.153 --> 01:19:41.894
as well as our schools, the running away

1819
01:19:41.894 --> 01:19:44.049
with charter schools, you know, this whole

1820
01:19:44.049 --> 01:19:47.302
charter school is the answer
to everything is a huge problem

1821
01:19:47.302 --> 01:19:50.011
in our work, and a lot
of it is economic driven.

1822
01:19:50.011 --> 01:19:52.272
So we have to deal with
some of those issues.

1823
01:19:52.272 --> 01:19:55.099
We can no longer ignore
it, and so our work

1824
01:19:55.099 --> 01:19:58.000
is again the both/and in that space,

1825
01:19:58.000 --> 01:19:59.578
and so we work with a lot of organizations

1826
01:19:59.578 --> 01:20:01.253
that are doing that work.

1827
01:20:01.253 --> 01:20:04.879
And they do good work, and
again, it's not without critique.

1828
01:20:04.879 --> 01:20:07.051
You know, you talking about Cease Fire,

1829
01:20:07.051 --> 01:20:10.313
and I could talk more about
that if you'd like me to.

1830
01:20:14.744 --> 01:20:16.380
- [Voiceover] Hello.

1831
01:20:17.133 --> 01:20:20.034
I appreciate how you started out by saying

1832
01:20:20.034 --> 01:20:22.423
nobody has a past, including you,

1833
01:20:22.423 --> 01:20:25.655
so I thought that was a great
way to start the conversations

1834
01:20:25.655 --> 01:20:28.002
we are discussing here.

1835
01:20:28.002 --> 01:20:29.388
I have two questions.

1836
01:20:29.388 --> 01:20:31.500
The first is a quickie.

1837
01:20:31.500 --> 01:20:33.985
We didn't get to see
the videos, obviously,

1838
01:20:33.985 --> 01:20:36.481
we're all upset about
that, and you also had

1839
01:20:36.481 --> 01:20:38.924
a lot of good stuff that we zipped past.

1840
01:20:38.924 --> 01:20:43.297
I'm not sure if you're
willing to pass that on to us

1841
01:20:43.297 --> 01:20:45.221
as Smith students?

1842
01:20:45.227 --> 01:20:47.130
- Absolutely.

1843
01:20:47.574 --> 01:20:49.520
(laughter)

1844
01:20:49.846 --> 01:20:52.128
- [Voiceover] Question number two.

1845
01:20:52.128 --> 01:20:55.659
What is the plan to move this program

1846
01:20:55.659 --> 01:20:59.136
that's been so successful
in your area to other areas,

1847
01:20:59.136 --> 01:21:03.641
to other states, to making
it bigger in other locations?

1848
01:21:03.829 --> 01:21:05.994
- Well.

1849
01:21:05.994 --> 01:21:08.799
Right now we're manualizing
everything, so all the stuff

1850
01:21:08.799 --> 01:21:10.687
that we're doing, we created a manual,

1851
01:21:10.687 --> 01:21:12.351
training stuff around that.

1852
01:21:12.351 --> 01:21:17.001
And so that should be available
probably end of summer.

1853
01:21:17.001 --> 01:21:21.246
And, so we're working with other
groups in Chicago right now

1854
01:21:21.246 --> 01:21:23.870
around some of this work.

1855
01:21:23.870 --> 01:21:26.355
I think part of the issue
too, is that we didn't,

1856
01:21:26.355 --> 01:21:30.846
you know, this, yes, we created
a black space and all this,

1857
01:21:30.846 --> 01:21:33.789
but you can create a
Puerto Rican space, right?

1858
01:21:33.789 --> 01:21:37.875
Or maybe it's a multi-racial,
and has a different theme.

1859
01:21:37.875 --> 01:21:40.690
Or maybe it takes a stance
on economic injustice

1860
01:21:40.690 --> 01:21:42.152
a little bit more.

1861
01:21:42.152 --> 01:21:45.095
The point is, is to do,
is again, to look at both

1862
01:21:45.095 --> 01:21:47.218
the macro- and micro-
issues within the context

1863
01:21:47.218 --> 01:21:49.810
of trauma and also healing
and community transformation

1864
01:21:49.810 --> 01:21:52.178
and the work that they do.

1865
01:21:52.178 --> 01:21:55.527
And like I said, the work, our
work around the CPS Bullies

1866
01:21:55.527 --> 01:21:57.937
is grounded in the CRC, the
Convention for the Rights

1867
01:21:57.937 --> 01:22:00.401
of the Child, you know,
through the United Nations.

1868
01:22:00.401 --> 01:22:02.726
One of the things, and
those who may not know

1869
01:22:02.726 --> 01:22:05.745
a little bit about that,
there's only two countries

1870
01:22:05.745 --> 01:22:07.803
that haven't signed on
and ratified that treaty,

1871
01:22:07.803 --> 01:22:10.065
that's the U.S. and Somalia, right?

1872
01:22:10.065 --> 01:22:12.518
You know, so we're in pretty
good company, you know.

1873
01:22:12.518 --> 01:22:16.560
But we're asking the question around

1874
01:22:18.840 --> 01:22:23.150
you know, are our schools
living up to basic human rights,

1875
01:22:23.150 --> 01:22:24.932
you know, associated with our young people

1876
01:22:24.932 --> 01:22:26.286
and our children.

1877
01:22:26.286 --> 01:22:28.974
Is the juvenile justice
system doing those things?

1878
01:22:28.974 --> 01:22:33.112
And so our work, you know,
is both around this kind of

1879
01:22:33.112 --> 01:22:35.843
healing pieces, but then also
really asking how do we create

1880
01:22:35.843 --> 01:22:38.499
the environments, you know,
and challenge these systems

1881
01:22:38.499 --> 01:22:40.749
that are creating these
inequities, and so.

1882
01:22:40.749 --> 01:22:44.594
So that's a long answer
to a short question.

1883
01:22:46.047 --> 01:22:47.900
Thank you.

1884
01:22:50.690 --> 01:22:55.426
- I believe this question
was somehow addressed,

1885
01:22:55.426 --> 01:23:00.353
but I'd like you to
elaborate a little more.

1886
01:23:01.833 --> 01:23:05.799
It's about what you noticed in the schools

1887
01:23:07.269 --> 01:23:09.836
and the closing of the schools,

1888
01:23:10.908 --> 01:23:14.673
and I guess I wanna know what happened

1889
01:23:14.673 --> 01:23:18.407
to all those students
who were in those schools

1890
01:23:19.644 --> 01:23:23.462
and if any of this model

1891
01:23:23.462 --> 01:23:27.979
has been brought to any of the schools

1892
01:23:28.955 --> 01:23:32.048
that are remaining or have emerged,

1893
01:23:32.048 --> 01:23:33.702
such as the charter schools.

1894
01:23:33.702 --> 01:23:36.624
I don't think that they
are exempt from issues

1895
01:23:36.624 --> 01:23:38.058
like this.

1896
01:23:38.064 --> 01:23:41.914
Because it's a terrific.

1897
01:23:41.914 --> 01:23:44.389
Oh, I didn't use that
in my question, sorry.

1898
01:23:44.389 --> 01:23:47.194
But the program that you
have described tonight

1899
01:23:47.194 --> 01:23:50.917
is exemplary and it needs to spread

1900
01:23:50.917 --> 01:23:52.836
as everybody said.

1901
01:23:52.836 --> 01:23:57.203
And the schools are such a,
you know, are waiting for this.

1902
01:23:57.903 --> 01:23:59.774
- Thank you.

1903
01:23:59.972 --> 01:24:01.406
Well.

1904
01:24:01.455 --> 01:24:04.985
So, I'm gonna speak first to
charter schools in Chicago

1905
01:24:04.985 --> 01:24:08.003
and, let me say this
about charter schools.

1906
01:24:08.003 --> 01:24:11.673
Charter schools emerge
from a lot of people

1907
01:24:11.673 --> 01:24:14.371
really doing creative things with schools

1908
01:24:14.371 --> 01:24:16.856
in a lot of communities
around the world, you know,

1909
01:24:16.856 --> 01:24:18.264
particularly around the U.S.

1910
01:24:18.264 --> 01:24:22.467
And so they were looked at
as being very progressive

1911
01:24:22.467 --> 01:24:23.789
in a lot of ways.

1912
01:24:23.789 --> 01:24:27.320
And we saw a really
cooptation of that process

1913
01:24:27.320 --> 01:24:32.247
in Chicago was around this
Renaissance 2010 Program,

1914
01:24:32.247 --> 01:24:35.287
you know, that really
looked at, really closing

1915
01:24:35.287 --> 01:24:39.052
a lot of schools,
coincided with some of the

1916
01:24:39.052 --> 01:24:43.159
No Child Left Behind work
around school accountability

1917
01:24:43.159 --> 01:24:44.854
and testing and all that kind of stuff.

1918
01:24:44.854 --> 01:24:46.785
So long story short.

1919
01:24:46.785 --> 01:24:50.241
Because of this pressure
that many charter schools

1920
01:24:50.241 --> 01:24:54.582
now feel to really kowtow
to a larger system, right?

1921
01:24:54.582 --> 01:24:56.790
A much more conservative system.

1922
01:24:56.790 --> 01:25:00.043
They aren't always seen as
very progressive spaces.

1923
01:25:00.043 --> 01:25:04.725
And so, that work that
really challenges systems,

1924
01:25:04.725 --> 01:25:07.306
you know, they're terrified to do.

1925
01:25:07.306 --> 01:25:09.493
Right, and they're under a lot of pressure

1926
01:25:09.493 --> 01:25:14.090
to adhere to some other things
from the city of Chicago

1927
01:25:14.090 --> 01:25:16.266
in particular, and even nationally,

1928
01:25:16.266 --> 01:25:17.546
you know, as a conversation.

1929
01:25:17.546 --> 01:25:20.916
So having said that we have
worked in other schools.

1930
01:25:20.916 --> 01:25:23.465
We are working in a community
called Eaglewood right now.

1931
01:25:23.465 --> 01:25:26.559
And so, yes, the work
is spreading, you know,

1932
01:25:26.559 --> 01:25:29.129
slowly but surely, you
know, we're doing that.

1933
01:25:29.129 --> 01:25:31.060
But again, you know this
idea of really having

1934
01:25:31.060 --> 01:25:32.937
a strong committed student voice

1935
01:25:32.937 --> 01:25:35.187
that's asking critical questions about

1936
01:25:35.187 --> 01:25:37.726
what's happening with their schools?

1937
01:25:37.726 --> 01:25:39.720
You know, people don't
always wanna hear that.

1938
01:25:39.720 --> 01:25:41.875
And they're afraid of that, you know.

1939
01:25:41.875 --> 01:25:44.552
So they want people to have a conversation

1940
01:25:44.552 --> 01:25:46.867
more so around how you're
shootin' each other

1941
01:25:46.867 --> 01:25:50.223
and it impacts you, not how the school,

1942
01:25:50.223 --> 01:25:53.650
when I walk down the halls I
got principals yelling at me.

1943
01:25:53.650 --> 01:25:56.967
You know, I got security
guards accosting me.

1944
01:25:56.967 --> 01:25:59.570
You know, we don't want
that, or we creating

1945
01:25:59.570 --> 01:26:02.119
a hostile environment where
people are doing their

1946
01:26:02.119 --> 01:26:04.167
emotional work in the
hallways because they have

1947
01:26:04.167 --> 01:26:05.671
no other place to go.

1948
01:26:05.671 --> 01:26:07.531
So, you know.

1949
01:26:08.625 --> 01:26:09.671
All right.

1950
01:26:09.671 --> 01:26:11.665
Hopefully I answered your question.

1951
01:26:11.665 --> 01:26:13.035
All right.

1952
01:26:13.542 --> 01:26:17.745
- Obviously, your talk has
brought a lot of thoughts

1953
01:26:17.745 --> 01:26:19.185
and questions.

1954
01:26:19.185 --> 01:26:22.022
It's about nine o'clock,
so we'll have to end soon.

1955
01:26:22.022 --> 01:26:23.899
But do you have any final comments

1956
01:26:23.899 --> 01:26:25.589
you'd like to make.

1957
01:26:26.181 --> 01:26:29.168
- Well, I just appreciate
again the opportunity

1958
01:26:29.168 --> 01:26:30.683
to be able to be out.

1959
01:26:30.683 --> 01:26:33.680
I think the work, again,
is about being inherently

1960
01:26:33.680 --> 01:26:35.717
within struggle with each other.

1961
01:26:35.717 --> 01:26:38.991
There is a line that I
actually really wanted

1962
01:26:38.991 --> 01:26:41.988
you all to hear in the
students' play, right.

1963
01:26:41.988 --> 01:26:44.687
And you would see them talking about

1964
01:26:44.687 --> 01:26:46.564
some of the issues that they deal with,

1965
01:26:46.564 --> 01:26:48.911
some of the issues with
schools and things like that,

1966
01:26:48.911 --> 01:26:51.716
and also with the violence, you know.

1967
01:26:51.716 --> 01:26:55.428
But ultimately, what needs to happen

1968
01:26:55.428 --> 01:26:58.764
in order to transform it,
and at the end of the play,

1969
01:26:58.764 --> 01:27:01.198
the other line which they say is

1970
01:27:01.198 --> 01:27:02.873
the only way out is through, right?

1971
01:27:02.873 --> 01:27:04.152
The only way out is through.

1972
01:27:04.152 --> 01:27:06.371
So there's no way around it,
there's no way underneath it,

1973
01:27:06.371 --> 01:27:08.184
no way, you know, to escape it.

1974
01:27:08.184 --> 01:27:09.603
We've gotta go through it.

1975
01:27:09.603 --> 01:27:11.555
All right, we gotta be
willing to struggle together.

1976
01:27:11.555 --> 01:27:14.040
You know, so ultimately
that's the work, you know.

1977
01:27:14.040 --> 01:27:16.610
We gotta, the only way out is through.

1978
01:27:16.610 --> 01:27:17.980
So.

1979
01:27:18.125 --> 01:27:19.772
- Thank you.

1980
01:27:19.821 --> 01:27:22.204
(applause)

1981
01:27:36.001 --> 01:27:38.881
Before we go, I know there's
several student groups

1982
01:27:38.881 --> 01:27:42.411
who I think wanted to
meet afterwards to talk.

1983
01:27:42.411 --> 01:27:45.686
If you're a leader of those
groups who are meeting,

1984
01:27:45.686 --> 01:27:47.723
please raise your hand.

1985
01:27:47.723 --> 01:27:49.280
Okay.

1986
01:27:49.280 --> 01:27:52.395
And please see the leaders as you walk out

1987
01:27:52.395 --> 01:27:54.112
if you want to.

1988
01:27:54.112 --> 01:27:56.389
Thank you, and have a good night.