Episode 2: Charity vs. Solidarity: Lessons from the US-El Salvador Sister Cities

Lynn Michalopoulos: [00:00:00] welcome to the Social Workers Is Everywhere podcast where we uncover the powerful, diverse, and far reaching impact of social work across the globe.

David Robertson: Each episode, we spotlight the practice, research and experience of students and social workers from a wide range of industries and professions, from clinical care to policy change, from leadership to grassroots advocacy and community engagement.

Social work is truly everywhere.

Lynn Michalopoulos: Through the voices of the University of Maryland School of Social Work Community, including faculty, staff, students, alumni, and global partners, we'll explore unique perspectives and innovative initiatives shaping the future of the field. We are your host, Dr. Lynn Murphy Michalopoulos,

David Robertson: David Robertson.

Lynn Michalopoulos: Today we are interviewing. We are very excited to have an interview conversation with Patrice Forester and Leigh Beck. So welcome to you both. Patrice, do you wanna get started and just do a brief introduction.

Patrice Forrester: Hello everyone. My name is [00:01:00] Patrice Forester and I am a graduate of the PhD program at, um, university of Maryland in Baltimore.

And. I'm also a volunteer with the US El Salvador Sister Cities, which we'll be talking about more today.

Lynn Michalopoulos: Thank you. And Leigh?

Leigh Beck: I am a licensed clinical social worker. I'm originally from Cambridge, Massachusetts, where I got involved with the US El Salvador Sister City project. Recently moved to the Baltimore area.

Have a connection to the University of Maryland. I did get the opportunity to train student athletes and athletic staff on mental health, which was really a cool way to get to know the school. And moving closer to Patrice. Now we get to collaborate more, and so really excited about this connection with the grade school, university of Maryland.

Yeah, that's great. Thank you. Can you give us a brief overview on the history of the US El Salvador Sister Cities?

Leigh Beck: This organization started during the [00:02:00] Civil War in the eighties in El Salvador, and it came about because during the war there were Salvadorans who had been displaced from their communities because of the war that was funded a million dollars a day by US tax dollars.

These displaced Salvadorans were a lot in refugee camps and surrounding countries. Were trying to repopulate communities in their home country, and there was organization CRIPDES who was helping organize these communities to make that happen. Part of their strategy was to reach out to the international community because they know if there was international support, particularly from countries like the US, there would be more protection for these people, Salvador trying to repopulate.

So different towns and cities across the US responded to this call out to help financially support, but also particularly to help on the ground. So starting during the war [00:03:00] delegates from Sistering communities in the US went to these new repopulating communities saying that we are here to witness and help protect these people who are trying to repopulate and we'll report back to our government if we see any sort of a human rights violations, things like that.

So that's the origin and many of those relationships continue today. Other sistering relationships between other cities and towns start have started later than that in the nineties. Things like that.

Lynn Michalopoulos: So your connection originally, 'cause you said you were, you were aware of and got connected to Sister City through, it wasn't through the Baltimore,

Leigh Beck: it was not, no.

So it was through one of the original sistering communities of Cambridge, Massachusetts. When I was one years old, my father went as a photo journalist as part of one of their first delegations. So I actually grew up with the images and stories of this relationship, this community. It became sort of an official sistering relationship.

The city count, Cambridge city council [00:04:00] passed a resolution recognizing the relationship and our high school, Cambridge, orange and Latin would send delegates of high schoolers down. And so I was able to go on my first delegation when I was about 15 years old as part of a high school delegation of fellow high school students.

And then I've been able to go back since then as well, so I've been a lifelong member.

Lynn Michalopoulos: That's really cool. Yeah,

David Robertson: it's powerful. Yeah. The mission of us El Salvador, sister Cities focuses on mutual community accompaniment. Organizing education advocacy. Can you both give a few examples of what that looked like in practice?

And then the second question to that is, what are some of the activities that you all engage in,

Patrice Forrester: in terms of the mutual accompaniment? I, just to give some background, I joined US El Salvador, Sister Cities during the pandemic actually, so online initially, and joined a lot of committees, so. As a part of those committees, and I've been in a [00:05:00] few of them at this point, I did some activities around the mutual accompaniment.

So for instance, as Lee was talking about how different towns and cities sister partner with different Salvador towns during the Civil War, and even to this day, I went with one of those towns, banger Mae. On their delegation to Carasque, which is in sort of the northwest part of El Salvador near Honduras. And through that trip I was able to see how over all of these 30 years since the time of the Civil War, this town in Maine had kept up this relationship with this community to the point where, you know, everybody knew them.

They welcomed us, even us were just getting to know them with fireworks or. Something that was making Wow. Um, you know, celebratory noises when we got there. That's true. So I saw that kind of love between them. And then within that accompaniment, [00:06:00] some of these towns and cities in the US they might support students scholarships.

So a lot of the students trying to get to university as well as supporting local businesses. Um, they do some of that promoting of economic empowerment and through our delegations, these, as well as other donations being able to support just different endeavors that our partner Organization CRIPDES this does and

communities over there does in partnership with different community leaders to promote community developments, help with youth development.

Other things that they may want to do to improve their lives and their society as well as social justice initiatives. That's one example of that. Some of the different things that us El Salvador, Sister Cities does as a part of its work

Lynn Michalopoulos: That's great. I mean, we, if you listeners out there, if you listen to episode one, we were focusing on, we were talking about the importance of community [00:07:00] engagement.

I feel like this is a true. A true example of that. So that's, that's really cool. Leigh, did you have anything you wanted to edit as well in terms of any of the activities or examples that you'll engage in?

Leigh Beck: You know, we sort of use our financial privilege to try to do what we can to offset how our tax, do US tax dollars continue, uh, to fund things that don't align with our values.

Um, and so we do a lot of fundraising, whether that's educational scholarships to projects like building latrines things like that. But then there's also funding the organizing. A lot of those projects would not be possible without the infrastructure that CRIPDES provides to kind of plan all of that out, things like that.

But then there's also advocacy. We've around policy advocacy, around wrongful detentions. Things like that. So there's also, since the war been a lot of dialogue between Sister Cities members going to US elected officials. Actually early [00:08:00] on there were US elected officials that went on delegations with Sister Cities to understand how our tax paying dollars are impacting the lives of.

El Salvador and brothers and sisters and, and kind of helping educate and think about kind of what is the type of policy that we as US citizens want to be impacting El Salvador, how we want that to be impacting El Salvador mining. Um, so a lot. El Salvador is very impacted by climate change and what's been really.

Beautiful in a way, although we hope we wish we didn't have to do this, but committees like Bang Ur Maine, who a lot of, we have a sistering relationship between a farmer organization in Maine and their kind of realities of facing climate justice are very similar to a lot of the Salvador community.

So there's also that. Common understanding of a lot of these policies and political advocacy that we're doing is a mutual interest as well, particularly when we [00:09:00] think about issues like climate justice, but other issues right now, like militarization. That's always been a concern that's morphed over time, but we really see how the our.

These advocacy efforts are advocating for both, for kind of both sides of this relationship because we have just in a lot of ways, a common reality that we're trying to work against.

Patrice Forrester: To add to that, going along with that mutuality as well, or mutual issues that both the US and El Salvador can work on. We also have a popular education school that actually we're, it's gonna be this August, but that's a also opportunity for people from the states to go to El Salvador and learn about popular education from different Salvadorian organizers.

Um, and talk about issues that they may have in common or in different contexts. There may be some different issues, but how can we learn from what you are doing [00:10:00] in El Salvador have done over the years and think about how we may have to adapt or, or maybe can apply with certain issues in the US as well that we may have in common.

So I think that's something else that we do. And then also. Having urgent alerts along with the policy advocacy, just inviting other people within our network or even outside of it to join on to different letters or different policy actions as well to promote social justice, whether the US or Latin America outside.

That's great.

David Robertson: I'm just curious to, how can, how can my current students be involved with any of this? With the letter writing, with the advocacy, even just with the educational of just even sharing content online.

Leigh Beck: So our website, ElSalvadorSolidarity.org is, is a great resource and that has our events page where it shows things like our [00:11:00] member meetings where those are open to the public and kind of have different.

Topics that we do regularly, but also if you're trying to get more involved, our different committees are there. You can sign up though if you wanna just sign up for the urgent action. You can do that through our website and just be getting those alerts. But our website has a lot of past blogs as well, and our staff are publishing updates about the, particularly right now we're getting a lot of them about just kind of the changing political landscape right now.

So all of that, and then of course you can reach out to Patrice or I, and we're happy to, to, um, chat more about different ways that you can be involved, even if it's just resharing, like you said, content. That's great.

David Robertson: Yeah. And I know some of my peers and I, we don't really sometimes know how to engage or what aspects to engage and so, you know, just would,

Leigh Beck: I would add going on a delegation one of the best ways.

Yes. Mm. And the popular as you opportunity. [00:12:00]

Patrice Forrester: Yeah. Oh

David Robertson: yes. Can you give a little bit of background about the delegations and how often they are? Is it quarterly, yearly, annually.

Leigh Beck: So we have them annually, we. Almost always have multiple ones that are going on. As Patrice mentioned, the one that she went on was a delegation of a sistering community in the US going to a specific, their sistering community in El Salvador.

So we have those ones and oftentimes we're looking, we often have space for other people like Patrice who wasn't, isn't from Bang Go Maine, but um, was still able to participate. 'cause those are oftentimes we have space for, um, to bring additional people. But then we also have like theme-based ones like the popular education one that Patrice mentioned, which that right now is, you know, a lot of different community organizers from different parts of the US that are participating.

So that is our, is often one where we're [00:13:00] getting people who aren't necessarily connected to a specific sister city, but we advertise those again on, on our. Website. And then again, also feel free to reach out to us and we can also, like on the calendar, it shows you which ones are coming up. Um, if you join like our listserv, you'll get call outs when we have one coming up and when you can apply for that, we try to have.

Scholarship money. Each delegation's a little different with that, but we always make an effort to not make cost a prohibiting factor for anyone. Sometimes we're more successful than others, but we really always, um, we, I would say I'm pretty proud we're, we've been pretty successful really

Lynn Michalopoulos: covering the cost for everyone or having it based on Do people, would people apply?

Leigh Beck: So yeah, so people apply. So in general, we always. Include scholarship funding as part of our just regular fundraising. Sometimes specific committees have [00:14:00] more capacity to share the cost than others, so it is a little bit kind of delegation by delegation. A little bit different what the situation is, but we kind of share that information.

People have a time to kind of apply for the scholarship, how much they need, things like that. So

Lynn Michalopoulos: that's super exciting. What. You talked a lot about the successes of this work. What are some of the challenges? Um, I'm, everything that's happening, I'm sure

Patrice Forrester: there, there are quite a few challenges. So I'm more of a recent addition to US El Salvador sister city network.

So I'm kind of talking more from more what I'm seeing as a more newer member. So I think some of the challenges sometimes are in terms of connecting to. More current issues. So for instance, this organization was started during the time of the Civil War and that was a particular context. And I think that us El Salvador, sister Cities is very, has a lot of strengths with, I think partnering with CRIPDES, who does a lot of [00:15:00] work within Salvadorian communities.

But now a lot of Salvadorians over the years, they're in the states now, a lot of them, a large community of them. So it's connecting also to maybe some of the issues that may be impacting Salvadorians in the United States, which may be different or they may have different concerns. This is just my personal perspective, this is not true.

I know a lot of times immigrants, when they're coming to the states, they're very focused on getting their work, just working hard, just getting through. And so sometimes they may not have enough time. To be as involved in some of the things that we may be doing. So I think it's just kind of connecting more, navigating that community over here.

And then I would say just trying to gain maybe, which we've already started talking about kind of a more diverse membership in terms of age, ethnicity, you know, and, and maybe even in terms of regionally too, so. Those are some of the challenges [00:16:00] I've observed.

Leigh Beck: I mean, I'm not to be boring, I would start with, we have the same challenges that most small nonprofits who are doing political work, you know, we have much more work than we have people who are willing to kind of volunteer.

We, you know, are constantly trying to fundraise. We are constantly navigating kind of the, which, the charity versus solidarity mindset, both within and outside of our organization. They're definitely the generational piece we're feeling where a lot of our people who were there from the beginning are aging or actually passing, and there really isn't that generation behind them.

We've been kind of getting people like Patrice and you know, other people who have come and there's a lot to be optimistic about. We have had committees that are no longer, um, because there was no one to kind of carry that torch after that kind of, you know, and that happens. We had committees where it was really kind of like that one person holding it down for [00:17:00] decades.

Um, and it was just challenging to kind of pass it on. Some of it is, for a while, ALSA, when it first started, El Salvador was in the front page news. That's how my dad could make money was 'cause as a photo journalist, he could sell his photos 'cause. Some newspapers wanted pictures of El Salvador, then that kind of changed a bit.

It's back now, but I think to Patrice's point, we've really kind of had to be learning as we're doing it. Like how do we organize in this new political context? The Salvador and social movement is really feeling it right now, um, as far as kind of this new political context. So, so I think it's a lot of just the thing, that most nonprofits experience.

But also some of you know that those particular nuances and changes in demographics and dynamics and political context and all of that. But I would say the biggest thing is kind of this question of the next generation. And particularly 'cause we have also, I mean I will say, [00:18:00] right, like I don't have the wealth that the generation before me had.

And that was in a lot of ways what had has carried this organization as we did have. To put it bluntly, we had a lot of wealthy people who were very generous and willing to kind of say, I'm gonna put lots of money towards this effort. Unfortunately, a lot of the people that we are recruiting are wonderful, great people, but like me don't have unfortunately those deep pockets and you can have all the energy and motivation, but unfortunately much, yeah, again, I'm very optimistic and, but.

And again, I don't think that's unique to us.

Lynn Michalopoulos: Yeah, can you can, I'm thinking about the just for the listeners and students that may be listening, what the term charity versus solidarity means.

Leigh Beck: So that's kind of something we often say in Sister Cities, we're always working on our ability to meet it ourselves.

So there's this real intention [00:19:00] that in a charity relationship there's really this power rein sort of dominant power. Differential that's reinforced in terms of in charity, you control the money, where you donate it to what it's gonna be used for, and there's really this mindset of I know best how to use what I'm sharing in solidarity.

It's really this understanding that we want to acknowledge systems of power and privilege,

Lynn Michalopoulos: right?

Leigh Beck: Um, but the point of our relationship is actually to undermine those, not reinforce them, and kind of baseline is that acknowledgement of this isn't that I more knowledgeable or better than you, right?

A lot of organizations come into places like El Salvador and sort of say, we have this money. This is how you're gonna spend it. Um, we're the experts and how to do it. Ours is much more of a conversation and a difference actually. [00:20:00] You know, we really take the lead from CRIPDES as far as, you know, what should money and resources be used for?

'cause we see them as the experts in determining that, not us. And also really this acknowledgement that if, you know, if, if someone else isn't free, none of us are free. And that under that our kind of. Human rights, our destinies, our fates are all intertwined and dependent on each other and seeing kind of that mutual also sort of learning and knowledge where we have things we can learn from you and you have things that we can learn from them.

And it's more that exchange and it's a hard thing to do. 'cause you need to, you do need to acknowledge the power dynamics, the differentials, while simultaneously saying, okay. How do we use that power and privilege that we have to undermine the fact that we have all this right? I have my power and privilege, not because I'm better, but because I was born as a white person [00:21:00] in the US and if Salvador and human rights are being violated, acknowledging my, my tax dollars are doing that, and what do I want to do about that?

Am I okay with that? And also acknowledging, right? Like, I should be invested in that because especially in our world today, those things are so dynamic and our borders, right? Don't really, they don't mean anything when we're talking about these things. Um, that what's going on in El Salvador impacts my fate, my human rights, all of that, and vice versa.

Patrice Forrester: I was just gonna say that I think the solidarity as explained by Leigh, I think that goes along with what I was saying, like even despite some of the challenges I listed and we both listed that I think as an organization, what I like about it is that we're willing to talk about these things, at least to some extent.

Uh, and we were actually working on different things, different plans to [00:22:00] kind of try to address that. I. So, and I think that comes from that solidarity perspective

Lynn Michalopoulos: that's important.

David Robertson: Could you both talk to us briefly about the concept of liberation theology? And there was some kind of like intertwining of the prior, but I'm just super curious specifically and how it's related to global social work.

Patrice Forrester: So Liberation Theology is a movement that began largely in the 1960s or seventies in the Catholic church in Latin America. And this movement really had this. Belief that it was important to transform unjust social structures through. First of all, seeing injustice and seeing injustice can include hearing about the injustice from those who are most impacted, and then using one's religious faith, your knowledge and understanding of God to inform what you're seeing how you're seeing that injustice in order to develop some alternatives.

That [00:23:00] and then finally engaging in some action. And that action is coming out of all of the knowledge that was learned from seeing that injustice, applying your, uh, your religious faith to it in order to implement changes and solutions to transform that reality. And so. For me, how that's support into global social work is that global social work.

I looked online at the International Federation of Social Workers and it talked a lot about not only promoting the wellbeing of individuals and communities, but also looking at some 

of those structure

create alternative realities, in other words, instead of that injustice.

So I think this is a way of kind of looking at reflecting and then also using those reflections to create other structures. Going really deep into to undermining [00:24:00] injustices in the world.

Lynn Michalopoulos: The work that both of you do with Sister Cities, how has it informed your social work practice?

Leigh Beck: Sure. You know, so I think that I really appreciated from so many early experiences of that interconnectedness and that like my sense of the world and how connected I am to the world really one

social work was I got, was a profession that I was like, I can I get to dive deeper into that. And so really just kind of saw social work as that kind of door to, just to go further into that kind of experience and awareness. And I think also this charity versus solidarity model, and I think particularly social work is still struggling as a profession, really struggles with.

Kind of are we charity or solidarity? Yeah. Again, I think having this really practical example with all its flaws [00:25:00] and ways that we fall short of what that really looks like and what's possible has made me confident, again since early on in my social work career of embracing solidarity and I know which side kind of I wanna be on in that debate.

So just really appreciate that I gotten that real again, real life experience. Like actually got to go there, actually got to sit with people and have that experience and there just, it changed everything, which one of the most impactful experiences I've had in terms of how I approach my life. But I, particularly my social work wherever I go.

Do you think it informed you wanting to be a social worker? So my mother's a social worker. So that and multiple what interesting. I started out wanting to be in social work because of community organizing and so absolutely. You know, I also to be a lot 'cause of my mother, but also because of this experience really had that perspective of what social work can be and that it's, you [00:26:00] know, a lot of people have a very limited understanding of what social work and I, again, yeah, since the beginning

kind of had that point of view of the potential. I actually went in for community organizing. It was very macro social worker. My field place really made me fall in love with micro social work, so I deeply believe that is what social work is.

The micro and macro. I think particularly that's part of my experience of like from the beginning I was doing and thinking about things in a micro, meso, micro perspective, particularly 'cause of my experience with Sister Cities.

Absolutely. That's really cool. That's awesome.

Patrice Forrester: So for, for me, I've always been interested in the macro social work and I was inspired a lot by Civil Rights movement, learning about that history. Mm-hmm. And so I always, kind of saw myself, I wanna be involved in community for work. I think I started out doing a lot of clinical social work, doing therapy.

Um, so I think [00:27:00] us El Salvador, sister Cities really allowed me. To have space to do more of that macro work and also on a global scale. 'cause I'm very interested in different cultures and also do other things with other, um, entities and peoples in different country, outside of just Salvador.

I think it just allowed me to expand, not just see myself as limited to the states, but as Leigh was saying, you know, going beyond that. And it's also helped me, I think too. Grow more in terms of advocacy because I've been able to be on the policy committee that we have for a time and helped with some of the urgent alerts, creating some of those and learning that, oh yeah, you can sign onto a letter or you know, go off with other organizations doing different social justice actions.

And so have even started doing that even in my personal life, reaching out to a congress person, you know, in my, that [00:28:00] represents my area for different issues happening that are unjust, I feel. And yeah, being able to kind of advocate for justice. And so it's allowed me knowledge around how to do that and become more comfortable with it, as well as having a space to learn about leadership and how to, you know, do different things around community organizing.

I am, I'm very shy, quiet person naturally, and so tend to kind of stay back and so, but I've had a lot of opportunities and space in Sister Cities to actually lead at some points or present something. I think it's just helped to grow in some of those areas a lot more.

Lynn Michalopoulos: That's great.

David Robertson: I have a question just for Patrice.

Just uh, because you talked about how this opportunity began during the pandemic. I. And I'm curious to how technology has been an asset or liability in kind of helping you connect with this opportunity. And how has it kind of [00:29:00] been, how has it been a bridge to getting the message out on a more global, utilizing technology since that was the kind of the, our bread and butter during the pandemic was technology, which was, we were overwhelmed by it, but just curious.

Patrice Forrester: I think it helped me. I mean I was, I did not really know about the network at all before, but how I learned about it actually was from the University of Maryland, Baltimore. 'cause I was in the PhD program at the time and I went to a Spanish language. This was before the pandemic happened conversation club that they were having or some type of group around learning Spanish.

And I've been wanting to learn and they had a flyer for Sister Cities of going on that popular education tour. And I couldn't go for some reason that year. And then the pandemic happened shortly thereafter. But I reached out to someone in the network and they said, oh, why don't you just join us online for our National Gathering?

And I [00:30:00] think, yeah, technology allowed me to be able to at least connect still, even though I wasn't able to go physically in person on that tour at that time. Then thereafter I joined these committees that we met online. So I think it helped us in connecting still in spite of not being in the same areas.

'cause I, I'm not an area where there's like any sistering community in El Salvador, so I was still able to connect through technology with everyone in the network. And then as things opened up, I have been able to meet people in person, like when I went on that tour. So I think having both has helped, but yeah, that's how technology has said was helpful during that time.

David Robertson: It's helpful. You just made me think. 'cause you know, even though we're social workers, I think people think that we're all wanting to be like in front of a hundred people and that's not the case. There's still people who are a little bit, introverted, we're still wanting to connect and it's like we can still do it.

Online opportunity exist so. Thank you for [00:31:00] sharing that and being vulnerable, sharing that aspect, because a lot of people are just like, they're isolated who wanna engage, but like what, in what realm that that can make them feel comfortable, but also engaged. Appreciate you for that.

Lynn Michalopoulos: Mm-hmm. Yeah.

David Robertson: Yeah.

Lynn Michalopoulos: I wanted to talk a little bit about, in our initial conversations about Sister Cities, you both discussed the legacy of Oscar Romero.

Can you briefly talk about who he was and how he's influenced global social work practice?

Patrice Forrester: Yeah, Oscar Romero, he's actually a saint in the Catholic church now. At the time of the Civil War, he was an archbishop in the Catholic Church of El Salvador, and he spoke out against injustices that were going on.

During that time, a lot of government repression and really injustices against people who, you know, had limited financial resources especially, and so he actually was assassinated due to his advocating for people that were being impacted by all this injustice. And this [00:32:00] happened actually when he was actually conducting a mass.

So he was actually performing his religious duties and he was shot on March 24th, 1980. And to talk about how I believe that he, I think is very important for global social work. I want to share a quote from Romero that was shared to me by a salvadorian staff member of Sister Cities, her name is Zulma Tobar, and the quote says, this is.

from Romero, I will not tire of declaring that if we really want an effective end to violence, we must remove the violence that lies at the root of all violence, structural violence, social injustice, exclusion of citizens from the management of the country. Repression. All this is what constitutes the primal cause from which the rest flows naturally.

And [00:33:00] Zulma goes on to say that this is meaningful for her because the people of El Salvador have suffered these types of violences For many years. There have been struggles from the people to end violence and there have been some victories. However, now more than ever, we need to be united in order to defeat structural violence in our countries and the world.

And so, um, Zulma said to me that she liked this quote from the Prophet Romero because it applied in the past, as in current times he was assassinated because he denounced this violence and the atrocities committed by the ruling

class. Today, we need to replicate his voice. To be in solidarity with those that are suffering the most under the oppressors of the people.

So in alignment with her and also just personally, I think that, um, what he did in terms of advocating against social injustices of the time, even to the point of [00:34:00] being murdered for it. We kind of need that even today as, as social workers or people working in social work. To look at the root causes of injustice, not just what we're seeing on the outside, but what is propping up that injustice and like, go to that.

And so I think for me, as I've learned more about his life and why he did it really also speaks to me as some, I'm also a Christian as well. And so I feel that thinking of someone that using my faith as well to apply to in the realities of injustices that I'm seeing today. As a social worker, how can I look at that, apply my faith to it, but also look at what are some alternative realities and engage in actions, whether it's advocacy or something else, in order to change that injustice, and make things right for all people.

That's great. That's really

David Robertson: nice. Drop the mic,

Leigh Beck: his quotes. There's the million. Drop the mic moments. [00:35:00] It's amazing.

David Robertson: Yeah.

Leigh Beck: So I do not identify as Christian, so I'll kind of speak to a little bit, kind of as someone who doesn't, but is a huge Romero fan and has, you know, has his picture everywhere. Um, so first, just from a kind of cultural competency, cultural humility point of view, a lot of us social workers are gonna be working more with people from Latin America.

People, you know, depending what city you work in, you probably, there are cities you're gonna be working where you work with lots of Salvadorans. Um, I'll just give a little, so knowing who this person is, because he is. You know, he isn't just important to the social, you know, just kind of the, the lefties, you know, he really is a national figure that's been, that's embraced really.

And we, Patrice and I met with some leaders from a local church and they shared around Romero's anniversary. 'cause we were kind of just seeing what different the, communities were doing, if there's anything we could support.

They told us how many, and I might, I am not very good [00:36:00] with religious practices, but part of your communion, I think you pick a saint.

And he was sharing a lot of young people in their parish are picking Romero as their saint. So that stuck out to me, just, you know, as a social worker, we need to get to learn and understand, you know, the cultures and communities of the communities that we're serving. And so just on that kind of level.

The other piece that I really, especially kind of the global social work, Romero, represents a evolution. He did not start out in his role as an archbishop so vocal, um, about these issues and actually evolved, particularly because of his close friend of his Rutilio Grande who was the first to be assassinated.

And after his death was really when Romero really had a, a kind of huge movement of. I need to speak out about these things. And so I al one, there's many aspects to his story that are wonderful, but I think one of the things I always kind of look to is his evolution and that story of we are always evolving and how do we [00:37:00] always kind of bend towards, continue to bend towards justice, you know, thinking about Martin Luther King, so quote, you know, about that.

So just, I also take that and just embracing I, I will forever be a lifelong learner and there's forever evolution. So that's one part of his story that I always kind of hold close to me.

Lynn Michalopoulos: That's really awesome. That's really great. Yeah. Sorry. I was just gonna say, I think it's a great thing to add because social workers and humans, we never arrived.

Like we're always and growing. I was.

Leigh Beck: And if you think you've arrived right, that's, that's when they perform full mistakes. That's danger. How many social workers do we know who are like, I've arrived and they can often cause harm. Actually

Lynn Michalopoulos: yeah. Go ahead, Patrice.

Leigh Beck: Sorry,

Patrice Forrester: I was gonna add, 'cause I was thinking of also linking it to like, you know, even to our context in the United States as well, like his life as I was learning even more, you know, about liberation theology in his life.

I was thinking that liberation theology, [00:38:00] some of those components are, you know, were present in the civil rights movement with Martin Luther King, and other people in the south in particular. They were using their faith to apply to injustices around them and then, organizing marches or voter registration or even a political party and I'm sure in South Africa.

So I think some of the things that Romero did, if we look in all of our histories around the world, we'll probably find some components of it and see ways that it can be contextualized for all of these, all of our different places where we may reside or do on social work.

Lynn Michalopoulos: So we are. Getting to the, the end of our episode here.

Uh, we have one final question for both of you. Can you tell us one thing that every prospective social work student should know about global social work?

Leigh Beck: I don't think I have anything original to say. I think I would go back to really embracing solidarity versus charity because particularly in the global social work, I think it's a little bit more behind.

We're still charity [00:39:00] here, over here in US communities, but I do think. There's a lot of people who I've even seen, like there's solidarity here and then when they start talking about like going to other countries that it, yeah. And it becomes charity. That's very, um, so, so I would say really understanding what that is and that's, I would say that's what you're striving for

and then just what I just said about the evolution and just kind of embracing that you are a forever learner and as you eloquently said, you've never arrived. And yeah, so I would just emphasize.

Lynn Michalopoulos: Thank you and Patrice?

Patrice Forrester: Yeah, to add to that, I agree with what Lee was saying, being open, I think, to hearing different perspectives.

So I think being open to different cultural perspectives even. And I would say along with that, being open to being uncomfortable. So a lot of times when you may enter into different spaces, different cultural spaces. It may be jarring because, you know, maybe you're the only one that either, you know, thinks [00:40:00] like you or looks like you, or this just feels different, but yeah.

But being open to, to, to being okay with that and kind of learning. And along with the solidarity, you might find out, you'll find a friend or you know, you'll

find a partner in terms of things you may wanna work on. So I think it can expand our minds and our views as well as even being ourselves, our unique selves, but being open to different perspectives and being okay with the discomfort that may come from that.

And rolling with it kind of. Yeah.

Lynn Michalopoulos: That's great. Thank you. So we are at the end of our session. Thank you both so, so much for your time and your wonderful stories and insight. Um, it's been really great and I think it'll be very helpful for prospective students, current students, folks that aren't social workers.

I'm definitely gonna share with all of my friends and want to, thinking about like, maybe I could do a delegation. I think this is a [00:41:00] great, great opper, great opportunity. So thank you everyone for listening to the Social Worker is Everywhere podcast. If you've been inspired by the stories and impacts shared today, consider supporting the University of Maryland School of Social Work.

Your donation helps fund scholarships, research, innovative teaching, and community partnerships like the one here that makes a real difference.

David Robertson: Every gift Matters. Visit ssw.umaryland.edu slash give. To donate today, choose other and specify Global please.

Lynn Michalopoulos: If you're interested in applying or learning more about attending the University of Maryland School of Social Work, please visit ssw dot umaryland.edu back slash msw.

Thank you. Bye for now.

Leigh Beck is a licensed clinical social worker, certified nature informed therapist, and a graduate of the DSW program at Tulane University. Dr. Beck is a well rounded micro and macro social worker with an expertise in substance use and harm reduction. She currently owns a counseling and consulting practice in Baltimore County, MD. Dr. Beck's father originally introduced her to U.S.-El Salvador Sister Cities as a child and she went on her first delegation while in high school. Decades later, she continues to be involved as co-president of the organization.

Patrice Forrester is a licensed clinical social worker and is a graduate of the PhD SSW program at University of Maryland Baltimore. Patrice has experience providing mental health services to children, teenagers, and adults affected by trauma and chronic mental illness. She is a volunteer with the grassroots organization US-El Salvador Sister Cities that promotes social justice in Latin America and the US. She also provides mental health therapy and wellness groups in private practice in MD and DC