Being Together While We’re Apart: Building Community and Providing Care, in the Pandemic and Beyond

The Interfaith Center of New York, the Psychotherapy and Spirituality Institute, and the Jewish Board will host a full-day online conference for social workers and their colleagues, to explore these issues in conversation with diverse religious leaders and faith-based service providers.

The social distancing and self-isolation required to fight the COVID-19 pandemic have cast a stark new light on the human need for social and emotional connection.  New Yorkers and others are increasingly isolated by the pandemic – cut off from family and friends, congregation and community – at precisely the time when we need each other the most.  Faith communities have responded to this crisis of connection with remarkable creativity, developing new forms of religious life online, including new ways of mourning for loved ones lost in the pandemic.  Mental health care providers have stepped up to care for clients wrestling with grief and trauma, offering tele-mental health services on an unprecedented scale.  But difficult questions remain: What are the strengths and weaknesses of these online forms of care and community?  Are they engaging or accessible to all New Yorkers?  To what extent can they take the place of in-person, embodied social ties?

On July 22, the Interfaith Center of New York, the Psychotherapy and Spirituality Institute, and the Jewish Board will host a full-day online conference for social workers and their colleagues, to explore these issues in conversation with diverse religious leaders and faith-based service providers.  We are disappointed that we cannot meet in person this year, but we will still learn from each other by being together.  The conference will include both formal presentations and small group dialogues, inviting participants to share and reflect on their own experiences of building community, providing care, and grappling with loss during the COVID-19 pandemic.  Participants will learn innovative strategies for online connection, and learn to work more effectively with religiously diverse clients.

The conference will offer 6.5 hours of continuing education credit for New York State LMSWs and LCSWs, but participation is definitely not limited to social workers – all social service, mental health, and spiritual care professionals are welcome to join the conversation.  Click the following links for details about participation and registration and for more about the Social Work and Religious Diversity conference series.

Click Here to Register