In light of the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, multiple students expressed interest in having a space to process the tragedy and our roles as Social Workers in relation to these all too common occurrences. I pitched the idea of a community forum in a small meeting and my classmates and professor were supportive.

With the collaboration and support of my colleague, Destiney Springs-Walker, and multiple faculty in my program, we hosted two community forums in May 2020. The first forum was crafted with the intention of creating a safe space for grieving and community support for Black students and faculty. We created an agenda and guiding questions. The second forum was a program wide forum crafted with the intention of processing and understanding our individual and collective roles as Social Workers. We worked together to create an agenda with supplemental reading and tools for participants of the forum. One of these tools shared by Professor Maruka Rivers was the silk ring theory.

From these two forums came fruitful follow up conversations and reflections on personal growth. I was encouraged that both colleagues and professors reached out to me to continue processing.

Additional note: There was a personal sense of urgency to proceed with the forums despite the personal distress as a Black woman witnessing another public Black lynching. I was advised to take time and reconsider having the program wide forum so soon with emotions being so fresh. However my biggest impetus was knowing American history and especially American summers. About a week later George Floyd was killed.