Event Description

This 3 hour participatory workshop for Black, Indigenous and Other People of Color will provide 101 level information on how solidarity economy, social justice movement building, and abolition relate to and can bolster our work as racialized and marginalized healers. Through this information we will then discuss the hopes and challenges of implementing these radical and restorative practices in our work. This space will particularly focus on Black experience and liberation.

Expected Outcomes/ Objectives

1. Attendees will be able to name at least 1 non-white theory of Identity Development
2. Attendees will learn ways to utilize games and experience of joy to help adult clients connect and reconnect with themselves.
3. Attendees will be able to begin applying the principles and practices associated with solidarity economy, movement building, and abolition in their healing practices
4. Attendees will examine their own identities and self-knowledge.

* This workshop is open only to Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) clinicians.

**The workshop is free of charge. Any donations are greatly appreciated.

***Workshop participants who opt to receive CE certification, please purchase CE credits separately. This workshop fulfills requirement for 3 CE credits. CE sponsorship is approved by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR), credits are applicable to LCSW and transferrable to LCPC in Illinois. If you have a different licensure or are licensed outside of Illinois, please check with your licensure body before purchasing. Please note that we require your live attendance in order to issue CE certificates. If you are unable to attend live, please let us know at least 24 hours before the event.

About the Speakers

Mike Strode
Pronouns – He/Him

Mike is a writer, urban cyclist, facilitator, and solidarity economy organizer with the Kola Nut Collaborative residing in southeast Chicago. The Kola Nut Collaborative is Chicago’s only time-based service and skills exchange (otherwise known as a timebank) providing an open platform for mutual aid, community organizing, and network weaving. The Collaborative recently launched an initiative to develop a network of Chicago-based facilitators trained in the Offers and Needs Market.

Mike enters facilitation through the pathway and for the purpose of organizing towards a solidarity economy. When holding space for groups within the Collaborative or elsewhere, his North Star is skill sharing, the free exchange of resources, and deepening the possibilities of a more just future through cooperation. He has designed training on cooperative practices for the Co-op Ed Center, Upside Down Consulting, Fuerza Laboral, Network for Developing Conscious Communities, and Cooperation for Liberation Study & Working Group. He is a past participant in Nexus Community Partners’ Cooperative Developer Fellowship and LIFT Economy’s Next Economy MBA (Cohort IV). He is currently a member of the inaugural cohorts of Post Growth Institute’s Post Growth Fellowship and AORTA’s (Anti-Oppression Resource & Training Alliance) Headwaters Facilitation Apprenticeship.

He is a Program Manager at Open Collective Foundation and serves on the boards of the US Solidarity Economy Network, New Economy Coalition, South Deering Manor Community Association, and Dill Pickle Food Co-op.

Cassandra (Cassie) Walker, LCSW, CCTP
Pronouns – They/Them 

Cassie is a Black Queer Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Therapist, Activist, Writer, and Gamer. They are a Liberatory Decolonial healer, certified NARM Therapist, and certified Hypnotherapist and NLP Provider. They present a diverse array of intersectional topics related to race, gender, sexuality, BDSM and Kink, mental health, liberation, and decolonization. Cassie provides therapy to adults, relationships, and groups and they specialize in the intersections of trauma, Identity, and mental wellness. Cassie is the founder and owner of Intersections Center for Complex Healing LLC and host of the Woke Mental Wellness Podcast. 

Tynetta
Pronouns – She/They

Tynetta (she/they) is a Black, Aquarius, Non-Binary, self-proclaimed southern belle originally from all over the south and living in Chicago for over eight years. They are interested in Food Sovereignty, Transformative Justice, and Public Health organizing initiatives. She is currently the Chapter Organizer of BYP100 Chicago (the best city in the States) and loves good vegan food! She works within multiple organizing spaces including The #DefundCPD campaign and others across Chicago. Their work emphasizes the importance of international and intentional movement spaces. She truly believes in the power of people’s narratives in creating an organizing vision for the future. They teach Stop The Bleed and Street Medic Trainings when they aren’t working at the University of Chicago emergency room! Inspired by collective power and popular education practices, they constantly strive to be accountable to themselves and their community!