Praxis Course: AFST234: Advancing Racial Justice
CEL Site Supervisor: Kristopher Pittman
Professors: Darlyne Bailey and Sarah Spath
Praxis Poster:
2 Adara Alexander, Margeaux Thompson, Sav_revised
Further Context:
SELF Inc. is a Philadelphia-based organization focused on helping unhoused individuals to achieve self-sufficiency and secure permanent housing. They offer a range of housing services, including shelters, transitional housing, and permanent supportive housing, all of which provide mental health support programming. Ife Wellness Center is one of SELF Inc.’s five emergency housing shelters in Philadelphia. Ife specializes in serving those struggling with addiction and mental health challenges. It’s a long-term housing facility that aims to secure stable housing for residents before they leave. They offer a few emergency overnight beds. It is co-ed and for adults, but also has a small youth program for teens and young adults. Ife is rare in that it allows residents to rejoin the sober living community after relapsing if they are able to make a plan with their care team.
After discussing with our CEL Site Supervisor and each other, our group landed on utilizing Ife’s existing framework of group activities and therapies as the basis of our project. We each chose to focus on a different theme for our group based on our interests, majors, and ideas expressed by residents and employees at Ife. We decided that each week, we could come on Fridays to Ife and gather interested residents in the cafeteria at several large, close tables to encourage an open, collaborative, social environment. We would then take turns introducing an activity, each within the focus of our own group, united under an overarching weekly theme. In practice, participants came in and out throughout our time present each week, so rather than having highly structured activities, we instead laid out all of the activities on the table and explained to each person as they came in what we each had to offer. Participants could then select whatever activity or activities appealed to them and work as a group. Throughout this time, we listened to music, chatted about the activities and their purposes as well as life generally, and often formed relationships with participants.
Adara’s group, Mind and Meaning, attempted to foster an environment for participants to articulate emotions and experience through creativity, and to empower participants by providing tools to strengthen emotional regulation and self-agency. Each week, Adara designed artistic activities with therapeutic or mental health-focused elements. By chatting while working on these projects, the group was able to integrate mental health discussions through community conversations and reflective dialogue.
Sav’s group, Creative Voices, included a multi-week “poetry club” packet in which participants could read a series of quotes about the importance of poetry and creative self-expression, read about a specific poetic theme each week that aligned with the overarching weekly activity theme, read examples of poems in this theme, and then complete a series of poetry prompts. These prompts varied in length, complexity, and tone, and they helped to inspire those who were already interested in writing poetry and to introduce poetry to those with less experience. This group aimed to encourage storytelling as a tool for self-discovery and empowerment. Residents generally responded very positively and were often inclined to share their own previous writings or writings they created during the group with students and other residents aloud. Residents were generally very supportive of each other’s share-outs and often encouraged the CEL Site Supervisor to participate.
Margeaux’s group, Community Threads and Self Care, focused on creating two-part activities with a creation element and a self-reflection/group discussion element. Activities emphasized the development or strengthening of self-care skills and reflection on building community. Another goal of the group was to gain an understanding of participants’ experience with social work and social workers to inform and improve future career endeavors and social work experiences.