Doin’ The Work: Frontline Stories of Social Change

Episode 66 Guest: Amanda Wallace, BSW Host: Shimon Cohen, LCSW Amanda Wallace, Founder and Executive Director of Operation Stop CPS, discusses the surveillance and regulation of families—particularly Black families—within the child protection system. Having worked in child protective services for a decade, Amanda realized the harm being inflicted on children and families, leading her to advocate for change and ultimately lose her job in retaliation. She discusses how Operation Stop CPS intervenes to assist families affected by the system, the connection between family policing and anti-Black racism, and the movement to end family policing through education, advocacy, and support. In this episode: How the family policing system surveils and regulates families, especially Black families Amanda's decade in child protective services and why she left How Operation Stop CPS intervenes for families facing family separation The historical and present-day roots of anti-Black racism in the child protection system Building a movement to end family policing www.operationstopcps.com Invest in the work www.operationstopcps.com/donate Instagram operationstopcps Facebook OperationStopCPS Stay In The Know | Join the Email List https://dointhework.com/listen Explore Continuing Education Courses https://dointhework.com/courses Podcast Episode Pages + Transcripts https://dointhework.com/podcast   Music credit "District Four" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Episode 65 Guest: Dawn Belkin Martinez, PhD, LICSW Host: Shimon Cohen, LCSW Dr. Dawn Belkin Martinez, Associate Dean for Equity and Inclusion at Boston University School of Social Work, discusses the Liberation Health Model, which she co-created as a transformative, sociopolitical approach to assessment and intervention. Rooted in radical traditions including Black feminism, Brazilian mental health movements, and Marxist theory, the model originated in a hospital psych unit through collaboration with patients and families. Dr. Martinez explains how to use the Liberation Health Triangle for assessment and shares tools like deconstructing dominant messages and recovering historical memory. This powerful model offers a flexible, collective liberation framework that encourages authentic, action-oriented practice. In this episode: The origin story of the Liberation Health Model Using the Liberation Health Triangle for sociopolitical assessment Deconstructing dominant worldview messages with clients Activism as a therapeutic intervention How the model works alongside other approaches like ACT and CBT www.bostonliberationhealth.org Email [email protected] Stay In The Know | Join the Email List https://dointhework.com/listen Explore Continuing Education Courses https://dointhework.com/courses Podcast Episode Pages + Transcripts https://dointhework.com/podcast   Music credit "District Four" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Episode 64 Guests: Ashleigh Washington, JD & Ruth Cusick, JD Host: Shimon Cohen, LCSW Ashleigh Washington and Ruth Cusick, co-founders of The Collective for Liberatory Lawyering (C4LL), discuss their work as movement lawyers fighting to end the school-to-prison pipeline. They explain how legal strategies must be rooted in community organizing to create lasting change, especially for Black, Brown, Indigenous, disabled, and other marginalized students and families. Drawing on their shift from direct legal services to movement lawyering, they highlight the need for shared power and collective governance beyond traditional civil rights frameworks. The episode also explores their Barefoot Lawyering model and efforts like LA Police Free Schools. In this episode: How legal strategies must be rooted in community organizing to create lasting change The shift from direct legal services to movement lawyering Education as a human right versus a civil rights framework The Barefoot Lawyering interdisciplinary practice model LA Police Free Schools and the fight to end school policing www.c4ll-ca.org Instagram liberatorylawyersca LinkedIn The Collective for Liberatory Lawyering Police Free LAUSD Coalition Report https://www.safeschoolslausd.com/ Stay In The Know | Join the Email List https://dointhework.com/listen Explore Continuing Education Courses https://dointhework.com/courses Podcast Episode Pages + Transcripts https://dointhework.com/podcast   Music credit "District Four" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Episode 63 Guest: Yoosun Park, MSW, PhD Host: Shimon Cohen, LCSW Dr. Yoosun Park, Associate Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, discusses her co-authored article on social work's role in the Americanization movement from 1880 to 1930—a national project rooted in whiteness and white supremacy. She explains how the profession helped define who was deemed American and how this process excluded Indigenous, Black, Asian, and Mexican communities. The conversation reveals how these racist ideologies shaped early social work and continue to influence the field today. Dr. Park's groundbreaking research is being expanded into a book that critically examines this legacy. In this episode: Social work's central role in the Americanization movement from 1880 to 1930 How whiteness defined who was considered Americanizable—and who was not The exclusion of Indigenous, Black, Asian, and Mexican communities from American citizenship How these white supremacist beliefs, policies, and practices persist in social work today Dr. Park's forthcoming book expanding on this research UPenn Faculty Profile Google Scholar Profile ResearchGate To "Elevate, Humanize, Christianize, Americanize": Social Work, White Supremacy, and the Americanization Movement, 1880–1930 Stay In The Know | Join the Email List https://dointhework.com/listen Explore Continuing Education Courses https://dointhework.com/courses Podcast Episode Pages + Transcripts https://dointhework.com/podcast   Music credit "District Four" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Episode 62 Guests: Beth Wagner, Claire Mancuso, Natalia Norzagaray & Parham Daghighi Host: Shimon Cohen, LCSW Beth Wagner, Claire Mancuso, Natalia Norzagaray, and Parham Daghighi—MSW students at the University of Texas–Austin and members of FED UP—share their work organizing for paid social work internships. As part of a growing movement, they discuss how they formed FED UP, their strategies, and the resistance they've encountered from within the profession. The conversation highlights how unpaid internships harm students' well-being and reinforce systemic inequities in social work. Their organizing offers a powerful model for collective action and a challenge to the profession's status quo. In this episode: How FED UP formed and their organizing strategies Resistance from within the profession and how they've responded Guiding principles and organizational structure as a model for others How unpaid internships harm student well-being and reinforce inequity Connections between unpaid internships and the devaluation of social work Part 1 Paid Social Work Internships Part 1: Payment 4 Placements – Matt Dargay, MSW & Arie Davey, LLMSW FED UP Instagram utfedup FED UP Email [email protected] Payment 4 Placements Instagram p4pnational Payment 4 Placements Email [email protected] Stay In The Know | Join the Email List https://dointhework.com/listen Explore Continuing Education Courses https://dointhework.com/courses Podcast Episode Pages + Transcripts https://dointhework.com/podcast   Music credit "District Four" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/