WHICH SIDE ARE WE ON? Social Welfare Action Alliance’s Dialogues on Radical Social Welfare Practice

Hear from activists with experience in movements responding to police brutality and racist policing in their communities. We plan to engage in a conversation examining what it means to be working in solidarity with one another and others in our community on these issues. The conversation will include what is happening now, what anti-racist responses have been tried or are being tried and what seems to be working.

EMCEE

Michel Coconis teaches in a BSW program at Ohio University on the Zanesville campus, investigates death penalty cases as a mitigation consultant, and in any spare time beyond that, engages in activism and advocacy efforts that range from service on boards of directors to street activism and civil disobedience. While currently she’s focused the state of our nation’s political process especially the electoral process and ending corporate personhood, over the years, her time has typically been focused on violence against women, community violence, sexual assault prevention and advocacy, working in and with poor people’s movements, restorative justice, media literacy and reform, criminal justice reform/abolition, and how intersectionality weaves through, supports and helps us deconstruct each of these, most recently turning, as so many have, to more review of anti-racist practice in each of these endeavors. She watches documentaries, swims, bikes, and marches for self-care.

FACILITATOR

Shawn James is currently a social worker in private practice in Rochester, NY and a clinical supervisor at Society for the Protection and Care of Children. Shawn maintains leadership with a local organization – Eliminating Racism and Seeking Equity – to focus on the social injustice issues in Irondequoit, New York. Shawn’s strong desires to advocate for the rights for all humans to live free from discrimination while focusing and connecting the intersectionality associated with these social injustice issues has been her motivation to speak-out as well as listen and take action!

PANELISTS

Baltimore, Maryland:

Melinda Maule is a social worker focused on the intersection of trauma, mental health and addiction living and working in the Baltimore Metro area.

Rebecca Armendariz is a social worker and psychotherapist living and working in Baltimore City since 2014.

Anti-Racist Social Workers Baltimore was formed in 2017 as an intentional learning group committed to the process of dismantling institutional racism and became SWAA Baltimore in June 2020. They are dedicated to providing space for support and growth for social workers around our identities, professional roles, and the systems that impact us and those we serve. All group participants are teachers and students in relationship to each other and our practices. They also commit to collective action, striving to show up for the endeavors of their fellow members and community-based organizations and coalitions, sharing in the projects that inspire us and build power by promoting justice, healing, and equity.

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Michelle Gross, from Minneapolis, is co-founder and president of Communities United Against Police Brutality, specializing in assisting families of people killed by police. She is also a board member of the Minnesota Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild and a member of NPAP. She has a 40-year history as an activist involved in a number of social justice issues, including anti-racism, political prisoner support, criminal justice reform and reproductive rights. A retired nurse, she now works as a medical paralegal. https://www.cuapb.org/

New Orleans/Louisville

Khalilah V. Collins is the mother of two, a social worker, community organizer and calls herself a Social Justice Practitioner. She earned her Master’s in Social Work from Spalding University in Louisville, KY. She understands the importance of grassroot organizing and the need to couple that with policy change. Collins’ current role is the Director of Making Connections NOLA which focuses on creating community level strategies to enhance the mental health and well-being of African American men and boys in New Orleans. She has served on numerous boards and coalitions and her work has always centered around seeking equitable outcomes for those most vulnerable in our society. She is currently spending her days in between New Orleans and Louisville as she works with on the ground organizers seeking Justice for Breonna Taylor and David McAtee both of whom were murdered by law enforcement. https://makingconnectionsnola.org/

Rochester, New York

Mike Boucher is a social worker and counselor at St. Joseph’s Neighborhood center – a health center in Rochester NY providing care for people who are uninsured or without adequate coverage. His work seeks to explore the intersections of poverty, racism, oppression, resistance and resiliency in the lives of the people who consult him. https://www.sjncenter.org/

Tiffany Porter is the co-founder of the Fairport Coalition, founder of Being Black in the Burbs, and mother of three sons. Tiffany is committed to engaging communities and the government in dialogue that supports people of color and creating solutions to the problems they face. https://www.facebook.com/beingblackintheburbs