Building a Creative Community: Lessons Learned from Efforts to Expand a Youth Social Justice Writing Internship in a Pandemic

Authors

  • Heather Murphy Sloane University of Toledo
  • Duvonna Goins University of Toledo
  • Amy Rowe University of Toledo
  • Nick Meuser University of Toledo
  • Dai'ja Banks University of Toledo
  • Lori Lux University of Toledo
  • Tulani Black University of Toledo

Keywords:

COVID–19, social justice, disparity, advocacy

Abstract

This is a firsthand account of efforts made to expand a social justice writing mentoring internship during the COVID-19 changes to universities and public schools that began March 2020. The Fearless Writers project was put in place to disrupt neighborhood segregation experienced in the United States by partnering university students with inner-city public high school students. This account incorporates creative writing produced during this time within the internship, with the permission of the writers. These small written pieces serve as evidence of thoughts and feelings shared by members of this unique creative community during a time of health and racial crisis. Reflections are shared about the challenges of continuing a social work internship, including the risk of not knowing what would happen to the project that was constantly shifting while local and state governments were scrambling to plan for community safety.

Author Biographies

Duvonna Goins, University of Toledo

Duvonna is an MSW student at the University of Toledo and was a part of Fearless Writers as part of her internship in spring of 2020.

Amy Rowe, University of Toledo

Amy is an MSW student at the University of Toledo. She was an intern with the Fearless Writers program in spring of 2020.

Nick Meuser, University of Toledo

Nick was an MSW student intern for the Fearless Writers program spring of 2020.

Dai'ja Banks, University of Toledo

Dai'ja is currently an MSW student intern in the Fearless Writers Program (AY 2020,2021)

Lori Lux, University of Toledo

Lori is a current MSW intern with the Fearless Writers program (AY 2020/2021).

Downloads

Published

2023-07-21

How to Cite

Sloane, H. M., Goins, D., Rowe, A., Meuser, N., Banks, D., Lux, L., & Black, T. (2023). Building a Creative Community: Lessons Learned from Efforts to Expand a Youth Social Justice Writing Internship in a Pandemic. Reflections: Narratives of Professional Helping, 29(1), 47–63. Retrieved from https://reflectionsnarrativesofprofessionalhelping.org/index.php/Reflections/article/view/1897

Issue

Vol. 29 No. 1 (2023): Special Issue on the Impact of COVID-19 on Preparing Future Helping Professionals and on Practice with Individuals, Families, Groups and Communities (Issue 2)

Section

Impact of COVID-19 on Preparing Future Helping Professionals

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