ABSTRACT
Under a neoliberal regime and a pandemic crisis, social toxicity is expected (Klein, 2007). Yet, social possibility and opportunities for cohesion and collectivism can occur. We discuss how social toxicity and possibility sit side by side during the COVID-19 pandemic, with an emphasis on the glimmerings of mutual aid for those who are undocumented and unhoused in Santa Cruz county. Given the stay-at-home orders, we, a graduate community psychology class, enacted photovoice online to analyze our context. We discerned a spectrum of possibilities as they coincided with toxicity. We present two examples of how social possibility and toxicity are mixed, and two examples of social possibility that include some aspects of mutual aid. These discernments can expand understanding of mutual aid and help the community psychologist know where to apply pressure and how to move forward to work toward social justice. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)
ABSTRACT
In this first-person account, we describe the changes we made to align our graduate student-level community psychology class with a healing justice model. We undertook this intervention because the class started in March, at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic stay-at-home directive in our region. We describe the facets of a healing justice model, which promotes radical healing and collective action in a trauma-informed environment. We then discuss the changes we made to the class to better align with healing justice, including how enrolled students (i.e., co-authors) experienced the process of the course (e.g., reworking the syllabus, starting class with check-ins and an exercise to engage our parasympathetic nervous systems), as well as the content of the course (e.g., service projects to support people who are undocumented, unhoused, or minoritized in other ways; photovoice). We end with implications for teaching community psychology, including the importance of universal design, and for scholar-activist PhD programs.