This episode we had on Taylor Easley for Social Work Month. Taylor talks about her experiences earning a social work degree and how social work overlaps with the disability rights movement.

Link to full transcript: https://www.ndrn.org/resource/ndr-mar25

Michelle Bishop:

I’m not usually the recorder, so God knows. We’ll just start having a conversation and nothing will be recording. Jack, do not put this in the episode. That’s going to be in the episode. All right. Stephanie, do you want to get us started?

Stephanie Flynt McEben:

Sorry. Apparently Quinn found a cat on the side of the road that looks lonely and now they want to bring it home. Pray for me.

Michelle Bishop:

That’s your cat now, just so you know.

Stephanie Flynt McEben:

No.

Michelle Bishop:

This is how you get a cat. Nobody goes and buys a cat. A cat finds you. That’s how it works.

Stephanie Flynt McEben:

I know, and Quinn called me and is like, “I need to get it.” My wife, by the way, just for some context, Taylor. I’m like, “No, no, no. I mean, I guess if the cat looks lonely, you can bring the cat, but I don’t know.” I’m like, “Okay.”

Michelle Bishop:

Oh my gosh. Congratulations on your new cat, Stephanie.

Stephanie Flynt McEben:

I’m not ready for this.

Michelle Bishop:

So excited for your growing family.

Stephanie Flynt McEben:

Nope, nope, nope. Okay, perfect, perfect. Catastrophic.

Stephanie Flynt McEben:

Oh yeah, Stephanie likes puns.

Michelle Bishop:

Taylor, if you’re not ready for the bad puns, Stephanie is the queen of bad puns. That’s the other thing you have to know.

Taylor Easley:

I’m ready for them.

Stephanie Flynt McEben:

They are puntastic. Wait, are we recording or no?

Michelle Bishop:

Oh, we’re totally recording.

Stephanie Flynt McEben:

Oh, schnitzel face. Well, Jack, you’ve got your cold open, don’t you?

Stephanie Flynt McEben:

Alrighty. Well, Taylor, thank you so, so, so much for being on today’s podcast. Before we get into your experience at the P&A, would love to just hear a little bit more about your background and how you got into this work and what brought forth your passion to this work.

Taylor Easley:

Yes. First, thank you so much for this opportunity for me to be on the podcast and hear my story. I’m very grateful and humbled.

Taylor Easley:

My name is Taylor Easley. I have a masters in social work from Virginia Commonwealth University. How I got into this work is that, well, one, I always loved helping people. I used to volunteer at a nursing home when I was in high school, so me helping people isn’t new to me, and when I got into school, I fell in love with social work and I ended up doing multiple internships between undergrad and grad school before working at the P&A of working in the disability community. Some were working in the group home, some were working in a group setting and some have even have been working in policy.

Taylor Easley:

In my senior year of MSW program, I ended up working at the P&A system and working at Disability Law Center of Virginia and that’s where I really fell in love with disability and disability rights and that’s one of the biggest steps of why I am here today.

Stephanie Flynt McEben:

That’s amazing. Thank you so, so much for sharing that. And it’s so interesting how so many of us, it’s been a very common theme from this podcast in terms of talking about how individuals with disabilities and without disabilities have just stumbled into this field in a lot of ways by happenstance. So no, thank you so much for sharing.

Stephanie Flynt McEben:

I know you pointed out your experience at the P&A as an intern. Would love to hear a little bit more experience about that and how that’s propelled you forward in your current career aspirations.

Taylor Easley:

I started as an MSW intern there at the P&A system, Disability Law Center of Virginia. It was a great experience. I learned a lot. I actually improved in my writing there. I learned what it really meant to really advocate for people with disabilities on a macro level. In social work we have the macro, mezzo, micro, well, I’m saying it wrong. We have three different levels in social work. One is working with clients one-on-one, the other one is working in groups in the community, and the last one, the biggest level, macro, is working in the community at large, but systemic policy level. And that’s what I got to do a lot at the Disability Law Center of Virginia.

Taylor Easley:

I would write articles. Actually, one of my first articles I wrote was about cerebral palsy. I have cerebral palsy myself, so that was definitely a way to honor people with cerebral palsy, but let them also know about the P&A system in a way.

Taylor Easley:

I was able to go on monitoring visits and actually be in the community and see how people with disabilities need help. I was on phone calls, I was in different types of meetings that they had and that was all as an intern. I later applied for the public health fellowship at the Disability Law Center and working there. And there I worked there for two years. There is where I really, really grew in working in the field, doing more work, taking more on tasks, reviewing report, leading meeting, and really understand what the disability community needs and understanding that it’s not just about getting the information to the P&A, but how do we get it out to the disability community. That’s one of the things that I did there at the Disability Law Center of Virginia, is that I found a way to take the information that was coming into the dLCV and make sure that the disability community and staff, that they had it.

Michelle Bishop:

Taylor, I’m vibing on all of this because, I don’t know if you realize this, you know we’re both social workers, but we’re also both Virginians. So I’m very excited about all of this. Thank you for representing for our people.

Michelle Bishop:

I wanted to ask you, I always wanted know, I always wanted to do the work that I’m doing now. I knew that from a young age, but when I thought about where that would take me, does that mean being a political science major? Where does this go? I chose social work because I really liked that social work as a profession is very centered on the person and how programs and structures are going to impact the person, and that to me was really meaningful. I’m wondering from you as a social worker and a person with experience with the P&As and the disability rights movement and as a person with lived experience of disability, do you see overlap between those ethics and values that are adopted by social workers and some of the tenants of the disability right movement?

Taylor Easley:

Definitely yes. I do see a overlap between the ethics and values between social work and the disability rights movement. And I also see it not just in social work as a whole, however, I’m also part of the National Association of Black Social Workers, so I do see the overlap there.

Taylor Easley:

Let’s start with social work. A lot of what social work is, person centered, they want to make sure that the client is getting what they need. We want to make sure that clients understand their rights, that they are not abused. That definitely go along with the disability rights movement. And that’s why I am not really surprised that there are a lot of social workers who work at the P&A system, at least at the Disability Law Center of Virginia. I am not very surprised because there is a lot of overlap except the biggest thing in the disability rights movement is that the client is a person with a disability, and that’s where we lean onto a lot wholly.

Taylor Easley:

For the Association of Black Social Workers, our values and ethics, they overlap a lot too, however, the focus is about people who are black. For me, I just don’t fit in with the disability rights movement, I also fit in with the Association of Black Social Workers because I am disabled and because I’m black. The only difference betw