About the Event
IDHA’s Decarcerating Care discussion series has reached more than 5,000 people with urgent dialogue about alternatives to policing that are rooted in the lived experience of mental health service users and survivors. The inaugural installment, Taking Policing Out of Mental Health Crisis Response, explored the carceral nature of mental health crisis response and how to maintain the safety and health of our communities while preserving the rights and autonomy of those in crisis. Part two, Challenging Criminalization and Control in Mental Health, deconstructed the prevailing narrative around the decriminalization of mental illness and explored ways in which services and "reforms" inherently uphold the ongoing coercion and control of marginalized communities.
On Monday, September 20, 2021, we will continue the conversation with Decarcerating Care: Laying the Foundations for Liberated Practice. Those of us who work as “professionals” in the mental health system have the opportunity and responsibility to cede power to those with lived experience in order to transform the systems that perpetuate oppression and harm for marginalized communities. This third installment will include a panel of mental health workers, individuals with lived experience, and activists working within and outside of the systems that intersect with mental health to present concrete steps and tools for decarcerating your practice, as well as methods for caring for ourselves in the face of institutional barriers and backlash.
Please register via Eventbrite to join. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email with details on how to dial into the Zoom webinar.
Donations
IDHA is a small organization that strives to meet the accessibility needs of our community to the best of our ability. Our events are by tiered suggested donation to ensure we can provide closed captions on our events and other programs, though we strive to never turn anyone away. We appreciate donations of any size for those who have capacity to give.
Access
ASL + CART will be provided in Zoom. If we reach maximum capacity (1,000 people), this webinar will also be broadcast live on IDHA’s Facebook page (note that the Facebook stream will have ASL interpretation visible, but not live captions). The session will be recorded and shared with all registrants. If you have any questions about access, please email us at contact@idha-nyc.org.
Panelists
Erica Woodland
Erica Woodland is a black queer/genderqueer facilitator, consultant and healing practitioner born and raised in Baltimore, MD. He is also a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with more than 17 years experience working at the intersections of movements for racial, gender, economic, trans and queer justice and liberation. Erica is the Founding Director of the National Queer and Trans Therapists of Color Network, a healing justice organization committed to transforming mental health for queer and trans people of color. From 2012 to 2016, he served as the Field Building Director for the Brown Boi Project, a national gender justice organization working to change the way communities of color understand and experience gender. His consulting practice is rooted in a deep belief that we must restore trust and connection in our relationships, the bedrock of our movements, in order to do the work of liberation together, and he has worked with a number of organizations to promote this vision. Erica’s training and expertise around trauma and crisis allows him to integrate healing justice into his work to interrupt patterns that undermine our political, organizing, direct service, and healing work.
Iresha Picot
Iresha Picot, M.Ed, LBS is a Licensed Behavior Specialist and Therapist, Doula, and Community Activist. A Philly transplant by way of Virginia, Iresha is the co-editor of the book, "The Color of Hope: People of Color Mental Health Narratives", and has written articles in the Research in the Teaching of English, The Philadelphia Weekly, Elephant Journal, Aunt Chloe’s Journal, Specter Magazine, and For Harriet and has been featured in NPR, Bicycle Magazine and PBS American Portraits. Iresha recently directed her first short film with Love Now Media, called the “The Do-Over”, which centers a story on trauma and triumph and has worked with the “Me Too” movement on their survivors healing series. Iresha currently hosts a “Sis, are you good?” series with Girltrek, INC that digitally centers Mental Health check-ins with Black Women.
Jess Stohlmann-Rainey
Jess (she/her) loves to talk about suicide. She is a mad, fat, queer, feminist, and care worker. She is currently an instructor in the University of Denver Graduate School of Professional Psychology and the Director of Program Development at Rocky Mountain Crisis Partners She has focused her career on creating pathways to intersectional, justice-based, emotional support for marginalized communities, and believes mutual aid, disability justice, abolition, and other liberation ideologies are integral to solving the problems that lead to suicide. Jess centers her lived expertise as an ex-patient and suicide attempt survivor in her work. Jess and her work have been featured in various publications including USA Today, and PEOPLE magazine. She collaborates on a videocast called Suicide ‘n’ Stuff with Dese’Rae Stage from Live Through This. Her lived experience and dedication has led to multiple awards including the 2019 American Association of Suicidology Transforming Lived Experience Award and the 2019 Cookie Gant and Bill Compton LGBTQIA Leadership Award for Excellence in Promoting Diversity and Inclusion.
Renaya Furtick Wheelan
Renaya Furtick Wheelan, PhD, co-founder and executive director of I’m FREE is a native Philadelphian. Dr. Furtick Wheelan is a motivator, coach, teacher, counselor, trainer and organizational development consultant with expertise as a group psychologist. In all her work, she uses a holistic approach in an effort to empower her clients. She has actively empowered and educated youth,women, and young adults for over twenty five years, particularly with programs that work with people transitioning as a consequence of life-changing events. In addition to conducting a series of workshops in correctional facilities, she has designed, implemented, and evaluated training, curriculum and programs for government agencies, nonprofit and for profit entities. She also spent time working as a Therapist, motivating and cultivating young adults in a dual-diagnoses (substance abuse and mental health challenges) psychiatric facility. Dr. Furtick Wheelan served for three years as a project coordinator with an intergenerational program; creating a multi-generational mentoring environment.
Vivianne Guevara
Vivianne has been a social worker in criminal and civil defense for over twelve years and is the Director of Social Work and Mitigation at the Federal Defenders of New York in the Eastern District. Vivianne was previously an Investigator and Social Worker at the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta, Georgia, where she supported litigation that challenged conditions in juvenile and adult jails and prisons in Georgia and Alabama, the provision of indigent defense in Georgia, and the proliferation of debtor’s prisons in Georgia. Vivianne began working in public defense as a Social Worker at the Bronx Defenders in 2007, where she worked with clients charged in domestic violence and mental health courts. Vivianne is a graduate of New York University and Columbia University’s School of Social Work (CSSW ‘08). Vivianne holds a certificate in Restorative Justice and Restorative Circles and received training from Kay Pranis, Planning Change, and the International Institute in Restorative Practices, and began facilitating peacemaking and community-building circles in 2014. Since then, Vivianne planned and facilitated circles within/for the criminal legal system, schools, universities, coalitions, community members, and private and non-profit organizations. Vivianne comes from a family of farmworkers, religious workers, and social justice workers, and strives to honor their legacy and that of her ancestors through a life of service. She continues to learn through teaching others and by providing opportunities that promote community and healing.
Moderator
Jacqui Johnson
Jacqui Johnson, LPC, NCC, CCMHC, PMH-C, is an IDHA Board Member andthe Founder and Clinical Director of Sankofa Healing Studio in Philadelphia. She is a Social-Justice Art Therapist who specializes in creating holistic trauma-specific healing spaces within marginalized communities and is trained as a Play Therapist. Jacqui uses a blend of approaches including art, play, storytelling, hip-hop therapy, parts-work, and mind-body awareness with EMDR, Brainspotting, and energy-based practices of Sound Healing and Reiki. She provides consultation to trained EMDR and Brainspotting clinicians seeking board certification, and is a training facilitator for EMDR in Color, a national training initiative committed to making EMDR more accessible to Therapists of Color. Jacqui teaches in the Community and Trauma Counseling program at Thomas Jefferson University and lectures widely. Her clinical work and research center around working with people in the Black community who have suffered various types of traumas as well as racism, systemic oppression, and mass incarceration.