Resources:
Sarah Rigg's Feature Article: Social workers offer services in unexpected Ypsi-area sites, from library to art center
Riverside's "You Are Expansive" Program
Transcription:
Rylee Barnsdale: You're listening to 89 one WEMU. I'm Rylee Barnsdale, and this is On the Ground Ypsi. From township offices to the district library, a number of organizations across Ypsi are working alongside social workers and students of social work to develop new, socially conscious programming and share more ways to meaningfully connect with all of Ypsi's residents. Here with me to chat about some of the social work minded programing over Ypsi's Riverside Arts Center is local social worker and therapist Kayla Skinner-Roy, Hi, Kayla! Thanks so much for being here!
Kayla Skinner-Roy: Thank you for having me!
Rylee Barnsdale: So, you are the founder of Riverside's new "You are Expansive" program. This is a pilot program. And can you give us maybe a brief interview of what this pilot looks like and what the goals you have for it are?
Kayla Skinner-Roy: Yeah, absolutely! So, I've been thinking a lot about sort of like the pitch for "You are Expansive." And what I've come up with is the You are Expansive program is really a love letter to our shared humanity and our collective well-being. And so, it's art that really--art programming--that helps us to remember how to love ourselves and how to love each other. And I say, remember, because this is a sacred, inherent knowledge that we all have, but we lose because we're living under really oppressive systems. So, it's an opportunity for us to come together and create community-based art experiences that help us to connect to our current place and time and think about our generational impact.
Rylee Barnsdale: And this opportunity for connection--is this something that Riverside approached you with as something they wanted to do, or was this something you had in your mind and just needed a home for?
Kayla Skinner-Roy: Yeah, I think, certainly, a little bit of both. The executive director there, Liz Warren, knew that there was a need for art programming that really prioritized mental health and holistic well-being, particularly for folks with neurodevelopmental differences. So, she brought a few holistic wellness practitioners and therapists in to sort of serve as consultants and help to kind of idea and figure out how we could even sort of move forward. And that was at a time in my life when I had just given birth to my daughter. So, I was like in the murky waters of new motherhood. And I was feeling all the love. And it was just an incredibly polarizing time politically. And it still is. And so, I was just constantly reminded of the need for us to reconnect to our humanity and reconnect to our sacred love. And art has been a healing modality for me. So, with a lot of different collaborators and partners, we sort of came up with this idea for this broader program that sits at the intersection of psychoeducation, liberatory, sort of like teaching and liberal education and then art and expressive therapies.
Rylee Barnsdale: And the program itself and the events associated with it, those are already underway, as far as I'm aware. Is that correct?
Kayla Skinner-Roy: Yeah, that's right. So, we had our pilot program this summer, which was sort of a three-part art installation that really talked about that really sort of like had folks focus on creating a shared art piece and having reflective dialog and leaving with access to an inner child meditation series to do their own internal work. So, it's a recognition that what we're doing in this shared space is just one facet of the work that we need to do internally. So, our internal work is an extension of our liberation collectively.
Rylee Barnsdale: So, education--pieces of the education--that are going outside of this set time period in this one specific room, things that folks can really take home with them and then implement with folks in their life.
Kayla Skinner-Roy: Absolutely, yeah! I mean, ultimately, the goal is for this type of programming to have a ripple effect, right? Som it's for us to be able to come together and have some really tough conversations and hold space for all of the feelings that come about when we're having really tough conversations and then be able to take that experience, that humanizing, life-affirming learning experience, and, by default, live a more intentional life--live a more value-aligned intentional life--because it's really challenging right now, particularly in wellness culture, to take care of yourself and practice proactive self-care while also being mindful of your community impact. And I think there's an interdependence of self and community care, and that's something that we don't talk about enough in spaces of wellness. It's very much like this one-dimensional, I'm taking care of myself. But that sometimes means like you're having a harmful impact on the community around you, whether it's the global community, your local community, or just like your friends and family. So, yeah, I hope that there's a lot of spaces where this type of work can be really impactful.
Rylee Barnsdale: And then, I mean you mentioned with the pilot installments of the program, there was a community art installation or project. How does art mesh with these ideas of therapy and social work and bringing folks together in that way? How do you use art in your work? I guess is what I'm asking.
Kayla Skinner-Roy: I mean, art is really at the center of everything we do. Art allows us to think in the abstract. Art allows us to conceptualize and externalize things that we're feeling that we may not have words for. The art programming itself is informed by a type of therapy called internal family systems. It's a specific modality of therapy that looks at your mind and body as a collection of parts. So, you yourself are an ecosystem, and you are residing within an ecosystem. So, the art is really getting you to think about your own system, the internal system that you are living with every single day, and humanize it, right? So, it's non-pathologizing. It doesn't vilify any one part. And it gives you a lot of space to think differently, just to think differently. Like I said, art allows us to think in the abstract. So essentially, at a workshop like this, you would have a number of different artistic mediums to choose from, and you might be offered a prompt or have some sort of activity where you would use the art available to you to construct your inner ecosystem and then think about how is my inner ecosystem actually impacted by the external world and the stimuli that I'm encountering day to day. Does that make sense?
Rylee Barnsdale: I think so. This is WEMU's On the Ground Ypsi. I'm talking with social worker Kayla Skinner-Roy and founder of Riverside's new You Are Expansive program. So, Kayla, Riverside is one of a number of organizations throughout Ypsi that is looking to expand their offerings to the community by working with social workers and social work students and interns. From your perspective, doing this work with You are Expansive, do you think that this course of action is something that's unconventional, maybe, or has social work kind of been a part of civic work in some way?
Kayla Skinner-Roy: Yeah, that's a great question. I think that it is a little bit unconventional. But to be quite honest, I have never met a social worker who wasn't also an artist. I think these things go hand-in-hand because, to be a social worker, you do have to think creatively. You do have to individuate. And so, I think in blending the two, you're just sort of tapping into a skill set that is already there. I think art has always been a way for us to protest, for us to make sense of the world that we're living in, to make sense of our internal experiences, our external experiences, so I think it just makes a lot of sense that art and social work would would overlap in some capacity. And I think social work, like art, is always evolving and changing. We are of the people for the people. So, as this program continues to expand, we're really interested in working with more community partners.
Rylee Barnsdale: We mentioned the Ypsilanti Township offices are looking to do more social work, guided and inspired work. There's similar work also being done at the Ypsilanti District Library. Is this going down that path something you would encourage other organizations or offices to consider to increase that kind of work with social workers in the area?
Kayla Skinner-Roy: Absolutely! We need to make our institutions more life-affirming. Like I said, we live under really oppressive systems, interlocking systems, and whatever we can do to create experiences that are life-affirming, that's what we should do. And that requires us to come together and think a little creatively. Imagine what our world could look like if we had the resources and the tools.
Rylee Barnsdale: And maybe doing some of that through art.
Kayla Skinner-Roy: Absolutely! That's the crux of it all.
Rylee Barnsdale: Well, thank you so much for being here today, Kayla! This seems like a program that can and maybe already has really benefited some folks in our community. And we really appreciate getting some insight on it today!
Kayla Skinner-Roy: Absolutely! It was so delightful to be here in conversation with you! Thank you!
Rylee Barnsdale: For more information on today's topic and links to the full article, visit our website at wemu.org. On the Ground Ypsi is brought to you in partnership with Concentrate Media. I'm Rylee Barnsdale, and this is your community NPR station, 89 one WEMU FM Ypsilanti.
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