Spring on the York College campus

Back to List

York College of PA Institute for Social Healing Symposium Scheduled for May 13: ‘Responding to Trauma and Promoting Healing by Building Compassionate Systems and Communities’

May 02, 2022
Headshot of Marina Harrell Levy

The York College of Pennsylvania Institute for Social Healing, in partnership with Millersville University’s Department of Social Work, Lincoln University, and the Mid-Atlantic Council on Family Relations, will host its second annual symposium on May 13. “Responding to Trauma and Promoting Healing by Building Compassionate Systems and Communities” is open to the public free of charge via Zoom from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The annual symposium brings together researchers, educators, policymakers, practitioners, community leaders, and students for the presentation of research, sharing of ideas, and holding space for open dialogue on topics related to the broad concept of social healing.

This year’s symposium will emphasize the role of compassionate communities and systems in effectively and ethically responding to trauma and promoting healing. Compassionate communities and systems are ones in which the people in them recognize the interconnectedness and complexities of the drivers of harm and paths toward well-being and actively work to ease suffering. They are ones that build effective structures and policies, communicate, collaborate, and coordinate efforts across organizations and sectors and center the voices of those most impacted by community issues.

The keynote address (12:30 to 1 p.m.) will be presented by Marinda Kathryn Harrell-Levy, Associate Professor of Human Development and Family Studies at Pennsylvania State University, Brandywine, a research associate of the Center for the Study of Higher Education, Director of "Scream Like Someone's Listening" (a trauma-informed, anti-racist group in Delaware County, Pa.), and Executive Board member and Youth Advisor for the Media Area Chapter of the NAACP.  She received bachelor’s degrees in sociology and political science and a certificate in African American Studies from the University of Maryland and a master’s and doctorate in human development and family studies at Auburn University.