Creative Resilience Collective

Overview

Leveraged participatory and co-design strategies to design tools and programs that increase access to self-determined mental health care for vulnerable Philadelphia communities

Role

Collaborator

Major Contributions

Ethnographic research

I contributed to ethnographic research done with mental health care providers, to understand the movement of and barriers to care information. 

The interviewees were from a range of institutions, including nonprofits, public services, private practice and community groups. Questions focused on organizational operations, interinstitutional communications and obstacles in referring clients to appropriate care. 

Read the resulting short paper here.

Community-based research

I contributed to a community-based research study aimed at understanding the lived experiences of mental health support (or lack of support) among immigrant youth in Philadelphia.

Exploratory research

I led early explorations around understanding access to care among diverse and intersectional communities.

1. I co-developed a survey that was distributed across West Philadelphia, which gathered spaces of care and identity intersections.

2. I conducted exploratory data analyses to understand the complex intersections of people’s identities, to better understand underserved communities.

Community - Driven Research Day

I contributed to the poster and proposal which granted us funding by Jefferson College of Population Health Community Driven Research Day.

Research objectives

1. Define and identify places, people, strategies, and barriers to care,

2. Understand what makes a safe space or home,

3. Understand what makes a safe and supportive person, 

4. Understand strategies of safety, 

5. Unwrap how teens are coming of age in a western culture that is different than nuclear family dynamics (e.g. western individuality, idea of code/language switching), and 

6. Identify sustainable strategies that community sites can use to make safe spaces more accessible

Sanctuary Philadelphia Independent Cultural Youth (S.P.I.C.Y. Program)

I co-designed and facilitated a series of 8 workshops to define, identify, understand and articulate what makes a safe space, individual and/or strategy of support for teens who may be grappling with less familiar language or cultural access to articulating mental health needs, and how these safe spaces are identified. 

We used participatory and co-creative art and design strategies to listen for what may not be as easily communicated verbally in an effort to understand the needs and methods to support these teens.