Doin’ The Work: Frontline Stories of Social Change

Shimon Cohen
  • 4.8 (113)
  • SOCIETY & CULTURE
  • UPDATED MONTHLY
Doin’ The Work: Frontline Stories of Social Change

Podcast highlighting people working for social change. Interviews with social workers and those in related fields, educators, and activists about their work and personal stories of how they got into this work. Hosted by Shimon Cohen, LCSW.

  1. 06/26/2023

    Operation Stop CPS – Amanda Wallace, BSW

    Episode 66Guest: Amanda Wallace, BSWHost: Shimon Cohen, LCSW www.dointhework.comListen/Subscribe on: Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Stitcher, SpotifyFollow on Twitter & Instagram, Like on FacebookJoin the mailing listSupport the podcastDownload transcript If you love what we discuss on the podcast, then you will love our courses! We focus on frameworks, knowledge, and skills to engage in anti-racist, anti-oppressive, justice-based liberatory practice. CEs are available. Check out https://dointhework.com/courses/ to learn more and register. We hope you will join us! Are you a fully-licensed clinician interested in private practice? Alma and Headway make it super easy! I’ve been using them to manage my private practice. Both handle insurance credentialing and provide you with an electronic health record. If you are interested in learning more, use my referral links for each and they will contact you.AlmaHeadway Thank you to this episode’s sponsor! The University of Houston has a phenomenal social work program that offers face-to-face master's and doctorate degrees, as well as an online and hybrid MSW. They offer one of the country’s only Political Social Work programs and an Abolitionist Focused Learning Opportunity. Located in the heart of Houston, the program is guided by their bold vision to achieve social, racial, economic, and political justice, local to global. In the classroom and through research, they are committed to challenging systems and reimagining ways to achieve justice and liberation. Go to http://www.uh.edu/socialwork to learn more. In this episode, I talk with Amanda Wallace, who is the Founder and Executive Director of Operation Stop CPS, based in Durham, North Carolina. We talk about how the family policing system surveils and regulates families, especially Black families, under the guise of child protection. Amanda shares how she worked in child protective services for 10 years, with the original good intentions of helping, but realized the harm that was being done to children and families. As she began to advocate for change within that system, specifically providing parents with information about their rights and how the system works, she faced retaliation and lost her job. Amanda discusses the work of Operation Stop CPS, how they intervene to assist families being affected by the system, families who have had their children taken from them — family separation — and families facing this state-sanctioned kidnapping. Amanda explains how this system is rooted in anti-Black racism, both historically and present-day. She shares the hope of building a movement to end family policing while providing the needed education, advocacy, and support for families right now. I hope this conversation inspires you to action.Instagram operationstopcpsFacebook OperationStopCPSwww.operationstopcps.comInvest www.operationstopcps.com/donate   Music credit:"District Four" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

    54 min

  2. 05/29/2023

    Liberation Health Model – Dawn Belkin Martinez, PhD, LICSW

    Episode 65Guest: Dawn Belkin Martinez, PhD, LICSWHost: Shimon Cohen, LCSW www.dointhework.comListen/Subscribe on: Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Stitcher, SpotifyFollow on Twitter & Instagram, Like on FacebookJoin the mailing listSupport the podcastDownload transcript If you love what we discuss on the podcast, then you will love our courses! We focus on frameworks, knowledge, and skills to engage in anti-racist, anti-oppressive, justice-based liberatory practice. CEs are available. Check out https://dointhework.com/courses/ to learn more and register. We hope you will join us! Are you a fully-licensed clinician interested in private practice? Alma and Headway make it super easy! I’ve been using them to manage my private practice. Both handle insurance credentialing and provide you with an electronic health record. If you are interested in learning more, use my referral links for each and they will contact you.AlmaHeadway Thank you to this episode’s sponsor! The University of Houston has a phenomenal social work program that offers face-to-face master's and doctorate degrees, as well as an online and hybrid MSW. They offer one of the country’s only Political Social Work programs and an Abolitionist Focused Learning Opportunity. Located in the heart of Houston, the program is guided by their bold vision to achieve social, racial, economic, and political justice, local to global. In the classroom and through research, they are committed to challenging systems and reimagining ways to achieve justice and liberation. Go to http://www.uh.edu/socialwork to learn more. In this episode, I talk with Dr. Dawn Belkin Martinez, who is the Associate Dean for Equity and Inclusion and a Clinical Professor at Boston University School of Social Work. Dr. Martinez explains the Liberation Health Model, which she co-created, as an approach that utilizes a sociopolitical framework for assessment of what is causing problems for people, and intervention techniques to help them live better. She shares the incredibly interesting history of the model, which started in a hospital inpatient psych unit in collaboration with patients and their families. You need to hear the story directly from her, but the model is rooted in a mix of transformative liberatory approaches Brazilian mental health practitioners were using at the time, as well as radical counseling and social work, Black feminism, and Marxist theory that Dr. Martinez, Nelson Ochoa, and colleagues studied together. Dr. Martinez breaks down how to use the model, explaining the assessment process using what is called the Liberation Health Triangle, and intervention tools and techniques, such as deconstructing dominant worldview messages and rescuing the historical memory of change. She shares examples and stories from her own experience applying the model. In addition to the sociopolitical analysis, assessment, and intervention techniques, I love how the model encourages practitioners to engage with clients in ways that feel much more authentic, the transformative approach of action for change once clients feel ready, and how it is deeply rooted in collective liberation. Additionally, it is flexible enough to incorporate various approaches within the model, as long as they are connected to the larger approach. Dr. Martinez and I get into all of this, as well as how to learn more and get involved. I hope this conversation inspires you to action. www.bostonliberationhealth.orgEmail dawnbm@bu.edu   Music credit:"District Four" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

    1 hr

  3. 04/24/2023

    Liberatory Lawyering to End the School-to-Prison Pipeline – Ashleigh Washington, JD & Ruth Cusick, JD

    Episode 64Guests: Ashleigh Washington, JD & Ruth Cusick, JDHost: Shimon Cohen, LCSW www.dointhework.comListen/Subscribe on: Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Stitcher, SpotifyFollow on Twitter & Instagram, Like on FacebookJoin the mailing listSupport the podcastDownload transcript If you love what we discuss on the podcast, then you will love our courses! We focus on frameworks, knowledge, and skills to engage in anti-racist, anti-oppressive, justice-based liberatory practice. CEs are available. Check out https://dointhework.com/courses/ to learn more and register. We hope you will join us! Are you a fully-licensed clinician interested in private practice? Alma and Headway make it super easy! I’ve been using them to manage my private practice. Both handle insurance credentialing and provide you with an electronic health record. If you are interested in learning more, use my referral links for each and they will contact you.AlmaHeadway Thank you to this episode’s sponsor! The University of Houston has a phenomenal social work program that offers face-to-face master's and doctorate degrees, as well as an online and hybrid MSW. They offer one of the country’s only Political Social Work programs and an Abolitionist Focused Learning Opportunity. Located in the heart of Houston, the program is guided by their bold vision to achieve social, racial, economic, and political justice, local to global. In the classroom and through research, they are committed to challenging systems and reimagining ways to achieve justice and liberation. Go to http://www.uh.edu/socialwork to learn more. In this episode, I talk with Ashleigh Washington and Ruth Cusick, both co-founders of C4LL, The Collective for Liberatory Lawyering, about their work as movement lawyers to end the school-to-prison pipeline. I did a previous episode with C4LL collective member, Nicole Bates, and organizers Jewel Patterson at COPE and Edgar Ibarria at CADRE, where we focused more on the organizing approach, but in this episode, we get more into the movement lawyering work. Ashleigh and Ruth talk about how they use legal strategies in conjunction with organizing models and push the legal profession to use legal work in service of community liberation. They discuss how law and policy can be used as part of a larger organizing strategy to improve the material conditions for Black, Brown, Indigenous, disabled, and other marginalized students and families. They explain, using examples, how policy change is often not enough, without an organizing approach to ensure the policy change is upheld, as well as addressing harm that happens yet is considered legal. Ashleigh and Ruth talk about their shift from working in legal direct services, representing students and families being negatively impacted by the school-to-prison pipeline to their shift to movement lawyering in coalition with organizers, and the distinction between civil rights and education as a human right, where power must be built not just from a legal framework, but from a community shared-governance power model. They get into specific examples of how they respond when anti-Black racist harm is done in schools. Ashleigh and Ruth explain their new interdisciplinary practice approach called Barefoot Lawyering. They also share what is happening with LA Police Free Schools. I hope this conversation inspires you to action. www.c4ll-ca.orgInstagram liberatorylawyerscaLinkedIn @The Collective for Liberatory Lawyering Police Free LAUSD Coalition ReportFrom Criminalization to Education: A Community Vision for Safe Schools in LAUSD   Music credit:"District Four" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

    1 hr

  4. 03/16/2023

    Constructing a White Nation: Social Work in the Americanization Movement – Yoosun Park, MSW, PhD

    Episode 63Guest: Yoosun Park, MSW, PhDHost: Shimon Cohen, LCSW www.dointhework.comListen/Subscribe on: Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Stitcher, SpotifyFollow on Twitter & Instagram, Like on FacebookJoin the mailing listSupport the podcastDownload transcript If you love what we discuss on the podcast, then you will love our courses! We focus on frameworks, knowledge, and skills to engage in anti-racist, anti-oppressive, justice-based liberatory practice. CEs are available. Check out https://dointhework.com/courses/ to learn more and register. We hope you will join us! Are you a fully-licensed clinician interested in private practice? Alma and Headway make it super easy! I’ve been using them to manage my private practice. Both handle insurance credentialing and provide you with an electronic health record. If you are interested in learning more, use my referral links for each and they will contact you.AlmaHeadway Thank you to this episode’s sponsor! The University of Houston has a phenomenal social work program that offers face-to-face master's and doctorate degrees, as well as an online and hybrid MSW. They offer one of the country’s only Political Social Work programs and an Abolitionist Focused Learning Opportunity. Located in the heart of Houston, the program is guided by their bold vision to achieve social, racial, economic, and political justice, local to global. In the classroom and through research, they are committed to challenging systems and reimagining ways to achieve justice and liberation. Go to http://www.uh.edu/socialwork to learn more. In this episode, I talk with Dr. Yoosun Park, who is an Associate Professor in the School of Social Policy & Practice at the University of Pennsylvania. We talk about her article, co-authored with Michael Reisch, entitled: To “Elevate, Humanize, Christianize, Americanize”: Social Work, White Supremacy, and the Americanization Movement, 1880–1930, in the October 2022 issue of Social Service Review. I cannot say enough about the level of research and analysis in this article. We are very fortunate because the article is going to become a book. Dr. Park explains the key points of the article: how social work was a major part of the Americanization movement, which was a national project rooted in whiteness, aimed at defining what it means to be an American and who gets to be an American, along with the full rights of American citizenship and the ability to enact those rights. Dr. Park breaks down how the Americanization movement, which included many White social reformers and social work leaders, viewed European immigrants as Americanizable, or White, whereas Indigenous Peoples and Africans, along with Asian and Mexican immigrants – and even this wording is problematic because the U.S. took parts of Mexico – were seen as un-Americanizable and the Other. We discuss how many of these same white supremacist beliefs, policies, and practices show up in social work today. I hope this conversation inspires you to action. UPenn Faculty ProfileGoogle Scholar ProfileResearchGateTwitter @yoosun_p   Music credit:"District Four" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

    1h 10m

  5. 02/20/2023

    Paid Social Work Internships Part 2 FED UP – Beth Wagner, Claire Mancuso, Natalia Norzagaray & Parham Daghighi

    Episode 62Guests: Beth Wagner, Claire Mancuso, Natalia Norzagaray & Parham DaghighiHost: Shimon Cohen, LCSW www.dointhework.comListen/Subscribe on: Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Stitcher, SpotifyFollow on Twitter & Instagram, Like on FacebookJoin the mailing listSupport the podcastDownload transcript If you love what we discuss on the podcast, then you will love our courses! We focus on frameworks, knowledge, and skills to engage in anti-racist, anti-oppressive, justice-based liberatory practice. CEs are available. Check out https://dointhework.com/courses/ to learn more and register. We hope you will join us! Are you a fully-licensed clinician interested in private practice? Alma and Headway make it super easy! I’ve been using them to manage my private practice. Both handle insurance credentialing and provide you with an electronic health record. If you are interested in learning more, use my referral links for each and they will contact you.AlmaHeadway Thank you to this episode’s sponsor! The University of Houston has a phenomenal social work program that offers face-to-face master's and doctorate degrees, as well as an online and hybrid MSW. They offer one of the country’s only Political Social Work programs and an Abolitionist Focused Learning Opportunity. Located in the heart of Houston, the program is guided by their bold vision to achieve social, racial, economic, and political justice, local to global. In the classroom and through research, they are committed to challenging systems and reimagining ways to achieve justice and liberation. Go to http://www.uh.edu/socialwork to learn more. In this episode, I talk with Beth Wagner, Claire Mancuso, Natalia Norzagaray, and Parham Daghighi, all MSW students at the University of Texas - Austin and members of the group FED UP, which is organizing for paid social work internships. This episode is Part 2 of a two-part series on social work students organizing for paid internships. They talk about how they created FED UP and how they organize, including how they frame their approach and strategies they use. They also talk about resistance they have faced and how they’ve responded. The FED UP members share their guiding principles and organizational structure, which are really interesting and can serve as models for others. We break down statements often said from social work administrators and faculty, such as, “Didn’t you know what you were getting into?” and “but you’re getting an educational experience.” The members discuss some of the challenges of unpaid internships for them and their peers, with a focus on how unpaid internships negatively impact students’ well-being. We also draw connections to issues of equity in the larger social work profession and how social work is devalued in society. I hope this conversation inspires you to action. Link to Part 1: Paid Social Work Internships Part 1 Payment 4 Placements – Matt Dargay, MSW & Arie Davey, LLMSW Instagram utfedupEmail utfedup@gmail.com Payment 4 Placements NationalInstagram p4pnationalEmail p4p.national@gmail.com   Music credit:"District Four" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

    1h 7m

  6. 01/30/2023

    Paid Social Work Internships Part 1 Payment 4 Placements – Matt Dargay, MSW & Arie Davey, LLMSW

    Episode 61Guests: Matt Dargay, MSW & Arie Davey, LLMSWHost: Shimon Cohen, LCSW www.dointhework.comListen/Subscribe on: Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Stitcher, SpotifyFollow on Twitter & Instagram, Like on FacebookJoin the mailing listSupport the podcastDownload transcript If you love what we discuss on the podcast, then you will love our courses! We focus on frameworks, knowledge, and skills to engage in anti-racist, anti-oppressive, justice-based liberatory practice. CEs are available. Check out https://dointhework.com/courses/ to learn more and register. We hope you will join us! Are you a fully-licensed clinician interested in private practice? Alma and Headway make it super easy! I’ve been using them to manage my private practice. Both handle insurance credentialing and provide you with an electronic health record. If you are interested in learning more, use my referral links for each and they will contact you.AlmaHeadway Thank you to this episode’s sponsor! The University of Houston has a phenomenal social work program that offers face-to-face master's and doctorate degrees, as well as an online and hybrid MSW. They offer one of the country’s only Political Social Work programs and an Abolitionist Focused Learning Opportunity. Located in the heart of Houston, the program is guided by their bold vision to achieve social, racial, economic, and political justice, local to global. In the classroom and through research, they are committed to challenging systems and reimagining ways to achieve justice and liberation. Go to http://www.uh.edu/socialwork to learn more. In this episode, I talk with Matt Dargay and Arie Davey, the co-founders of the group Payment 4 Placements, which advocates for social work students to have paid internships. This episode is Part 1 of a two-part series on social work students organizing for paid internships. They started this group as MSW students at the University of Michigan, and there are now chapters across the U.S. We talk about the overall issue of social work students not only being required to complete free internships to graduate, but also having to pay for the internship credits. We discuss the inequities of this unpaid internship system in terms of who gets to be a social worker, the debt of social work students, and how the national accrediting organization, the Council on Social Work Education, released a report stating that the cost of a social work degree is much higher for Black social work students. Arie and Matt present numerous ways to fund paid internships and talk about the organizing they’ve done at the University of Michigan and at the state level. They helped pass legislation to fund students interning as mental health counselors in schools across the state of Michigan, including funds for student interns in related disciplines, such as mental health counseling and psychology. They share their experiences organizing with the graduate union at the University of Michigan and offer additional strategies for social work students and others who want to address this critical issue. We have to challenge the mentality of “that’s just the way it is” and use our social work skills to organize for change. I hope this conversation inspires you to action. Link to Part 2: Paid Social Work Internships Part 2 FED UP – Beth Wagner, Claire Mancuso, Natalia Norzagaray & Parham Daghighi Instagram paymentforplacementsumichTwitter @P4PUofMFacebook Payment for Placements at the University of MichiganEmail p4p.national@gmail.com     p4p.umich@gmail.com   Music credit:"District Four" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

    1h 6m

  7. 12/19/2022

    Understanding Antisemitism and Racism – Kohenet Shoshana A Brown, LMSW & Autumn Leonard

    Episode 60Guests: Kohenet Shoshana A Brown, LMSW & Autumn LeonardHost: Shimon Cohen, LCSW www.dointhework.comListen/Subscribe on: Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Stitcher, SpotifyFollow on Twitter & Instagram, Like on FacebookJoin the mailing listSupport the podcastDownload transcript If you love what we discuss on the podcast, then you will love our courses! We focus on frameworks, knowledge, and skills to engage in anti-racist, anti-oppressive, justice-based liberatory practice. CEs are available. Check out https://dointhework.com/courses/ to learn more and register. We hope you will join us! Are you a fully-licensed clinician interested in private practice? Alma and Headway make it super easy! I’ve been using them to manage my private practice. Both handle insurance credentialing and provide you with an electronic health record. If you are interested in learning more, use my referral links for each and they will contact you.AlmaHeadway Thank you to this episode’s sponsor! The University of Houston has a phenomenal social work program that offers face-to-face master's and doctorate degrees, as well as an online and hybrid MSW. They offer one of the country’s only Political Social Work programs and an Abolitionist Focused Learning Opportunity. Located in the heart of Houston, the program is guided by their bold vision to achieve social, racial, economic, and political justice, local to global. In the classroom and through research, they are committed to challenging systems and reimagining ways to achieve justice and liberation. Go to http://www.uh.edu/socialwork to learn more. In this episode, I talk with Shoshana Brown and Autumn Leonard of the Black Jewish Liberation Collective and Jews for Economic & Racial Justice, based in New York City. We discuss what antisemitism is, ways it functions, and how antisemitism and racism are features of white supremacy. Shoshana and Autumn talk about their work to provide a communal space for Black Jews and how they organize to disrupt antisemitism and racism. We get into a lot in this interview but there is so much more on this topic that needs to be talked about. I know that even though I’m Jewish, I could do a better job talking and teaching about antisemitism, and how it works to divide us. It can be frustrating to bring it up when so many people are not taught the origins of antisemitism and how it operates. At the same time, those of you who follow the podcast know that we can’t avoid these hard topics, and like Shoshana, Autumn, and I talk about, change only comes when we address antisemitism and racism and work to build community. I hope this conversation inspires you to action.www.blackjewishliberation.orgIG: blackjewishliberationTwitter: @bjlcollectiveFacebook: BlackJewishLiberationKohenet Shoshanawww.shoshanaakua.comIG: illuminatorofxTwitter: @ShoBAutumnwww.bodygetfree.comIG: autumng0tstaminaFacebook: autumn.leonard.31   Music credit:"District Four" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

    57 min

  8. 11/14/2022

    Creating Culturally Safe Spaces for Indigenous Populations – Turquoise Skye Devereaux, MSW

    Episode 59Guest: Turquoise Skye Devereaux, MSWHost: Shimon Cohen, LCSW www.dointhework.comListen/Subscribe on: Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Stitcher, SpotifyFollow on Twitter & Instagram, Like on FacebookJoin the mailing listSupport the podcastDownload transcript If you love what we discuss on the podcast, then you will love our courses! We focus on frameworks, knowledge, and skills to engage in anti-racist, anti-oppressive, justice-based liberatory practice. CEs are available. Check out https://dointhework.com/courses/ to learn more and register. We hope you will join us! Are you a fully-licensed clinician interested in private practice? Alma and Headway make it super easy! I’ve been using them to manage my private practice. Both handle insurance credentialing and provide you with an electronic health record. If you are interested in learning more, use my referral links for each and they will contact you.AlmaHeadway Are you a fully-licensed clinician interested in private practice? Alma and Headway make it super easy! I’ve been using them to manage my private practice. Both handle insurance credentialing and provide you with an electronic health record. If you are interested in learning more, use my referral links for each and they will contact you.AlmaHeadway Thank you to this episode’s sponsor! The University of Houston has a phenomenal social work program that offers face-to-face master's and doctorate degrees, as well as an online and hybrid MSW. They offer one of the country’s only Political Social Work programs and an Abolitionist Focused Learning Opportunity. Located in the heart of Houston, the program is guided by their bold vision to achieve social, racial, economic, and political justice, local to global. In the classroom and through research, they are committed to challenging systems and reimagining ways to achieve justice and liberation. Go to http://www.uh.edu/socialwork to learn more. In this episode, I talk with Turquoise Skye Devereaux, a member of the Salish and Blackfeet Tribes of Montana, owner of the consulting company Indigenous Skye, LLC, where she does a range of trainings, workshops, and speaking focused on creating culturally safe spaces for Indigenous populations as well as work with Indigenous youth and tribal communities. She also works in higher education in retention of Native students and is a PhD student in the School of Social Work at Arizona State University. Turquoise talks about colonial systems and the four stages of colonization, as well as systemic racism and oppression, and specific ways education and social work have caused–and continue to cause–harm to Indigenous Peoples and other marginalized groups. We get into how cultural competency is a myth based in a Westernized, colonial mentality, and how it does more harm than good. Turquoise explains differences between Indigenous and Westernized worldviews and ways of living. She shares ways to create cultural safe spaces for Indigenous populations, providing examples from her own life, as well as interviews she has done with Indigenous students, in terms of ways they did not feel included in school systems, and how professors, administrators, and staff made a difference–and can make a difference–in creating safety, equity, and inclusion. I hope this conversation inspires you to action. Instagram: indigenous.cc & cahokiaphxLinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/turquoisedevereauxEmail: t.s.devereaux@gmail.com   Music credit:"District Four" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

    1h 17m
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4.8
out of 5
113 Ratings

About

Podcast highlighting people working for social change. Interviews with social workers and those in related fields, educators, and activists about their work and personal stories of how they got into this work. Hosted by Shimon Cohen, LCSW.

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