As part of my journey, I understand various family factors including how parental separation, divorce, and step families can impact a family unit. I have experienced losing loved ones to violence. I believe that every person and family are unique. In addition to our uniqueness, I understand and appreciate that patterns can be identified to help people address problems.
My stepfather, Jim was a pediatrician who treated people with the focus on direct care like other community doctors like Paul Bermanzohn. Jim and Paul used to say: “people kept coming to me with broken legs. And one day, I looked outside the window and I saw a pothole. So, I decided to fix the pothole.” Jim’s and Paul’s response to meeting people’s needs were focused on their medical and other issues. For example, they were so focused on meeting people’s needs that they understood their needs and barriers to supports.
Jim would go to people, they would come to him, which included our house, and/or he would listen to and help people on the phone. Jim’s reference to fixing the pothole expressed his understanding of the roots of some of those medical conditions (including Brown Lung). So, Jim helped people directly and was an advocate for safe and healthy working conditions. He and other community leaders around me taught me the importance and value of understanding the root causes of and possible solutions to people’s struggles, which includes both direct work and working with people at the community and systemic levels.
Those ideas and service models have stayed with me from the time that I became aware of them as a pre-adolescent. Since witnessing those models, I have experienced many situations including a variety of ways that people get together to try to help people meet our needs. I’ve found Jim’s model of nurturing to be the most valuable approach to meeting people’s needs, as directly as possible with people. I have worked in many different settings including with temporary agencies and well-established organizations. I have also worked with different pay scales including being paid a salary and by the hour. I have worked in different aspects of a mental health system including, Community Support, Community Support Team, and Intensive In-Home Services.
I have explored how social constructs, such as gender, class, age, mobility, sensory and food categories can affect people’s lives. I feel that people are good at our core beings, but we can do life affirming or harmful things. I think that people are good or that we’re fine the way we are naturally. But sometimes, we get caught up in harmful spaces and ideas. I understand how sometimes people are marginalized in the U.S. culture because there are dominant patterns in place that are used as a standard that other ways of being are measured against.
I have a Master’s degree in social work and have worked in traditional and special education classrooms. I have been engaged with the traditional retributive justice system and the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission Project (GTRCP). I have been involved with community projects such as the Greensboro Currency Project (GCP) and Undoing Racism. I want to continue be involved with people directly because I think it makes more sense to me that people be involved in areas that impact our lives.
I have also worked at the policy level and understand how they can affect people’s lives. A few years ago, someone that I used to work with at a mental health agency called me to express her concern. She knew that I was struggling and suggested that I get a neurological evaluation. I got tested and one thing led to another. I was diagnosed with Non-Verbal Learning Disability (a new term for me). Later, I was diagnosed on the Autism spectrum. Since then, I’ve experienced trying to meet my needs through the dominant culture and systems, such as food and healthcare.
As part of my social work experiences, I’ve worked at some mental health agencies. I’ve had a mixed experience with the mental health agencies and other work and school experiences. The last mental health agency that I worked for, let me go, because they said the reason was, “due to fit.” That moment led to my car being repossessed, being evicted from my residence, and generally, finding myself in a, “client” space.
So, I have experienced many different working and economic situations first hand. I received my experience at a shelter and other services as both a client and social worker (individual and collective experiences).
Therefore, I draw on my journey to share perspectives, ideas, and information to reference as we want. So that we can live our lives the way we want to. So, I have experienced an intellectual and emotional journey, which includes my own healing. Since I understand certain experiences like family dynamics and losing loved ones through violence, I know how it can impact people at the individual and community levels.