Mission/Values and Members
Context: The Empowerment Committee is a University of Mississippi Department of Social Work social justice organization committed to the empowerment of all people, with particular attention and dedication to our most vulnerable community members. This and the following statements affiliated with the Empowerment Committee represent a co-created jumping off point for our work. As the Empowerment Committee experiences and creates change, these statements will need to be updated or replaced to accommodate new learnings, members, and perspectives.
Mission: The University of Mississippi Department of Social Work Empowerment Committee is a group of dedicated students, staff, faculty, and community members who advocate for social justice. Our mission is to promote safety, accessibility, inclusivity across social identities, and human rights within our academic community and more broadly. We aim to assist the department in operationalizing social work’s ethical values of social justice and the dignity and worth of each person within and surrounding our community.
Vision: We envision a Mississippi that recognizes the dignity and worth of all people, where folks/folx who live here are defined by their endurance and strength instead of their position on the bottom of some list, and that fosters meaningful conversations about the histories and experiences of peoples in the American South.
Values and Ways of Being:
- We fight for social justice on our campus and in our communities.
- We honor the dignity and worth of all people.
- We foster and develop our own competency.
- We recognize that diversity strengthens our perspective and work.
- We operate with kindness, respect, patience, adaptability, with a spirit of welcoming, open-mindedness, and curiosity.
We commit to each other, to be supportive, nurturing, and challenging of one another from a gentle and loving place. We will not dismiss the lived experiences of others.
Goals:
- Create an inclusive community that strengthens us, strengthens our work, and strengthens our networks as we live into our roles and values within the social work field.
- Ensure that students are equipped with the necessary tools to serve as change agents in their communities; helping students explore their identities, biases, strengths/weaknesses, etc.
- Equip students with tools to serve as competent change agents AND challenge our own biases/strengths/weaknesses.
- Evaluate our impact.
- Grow in fellowship, community, and development opportunities as we empower ourselves and others through social work practice.
- Create a thriving community where all feel that they belong.
- Create a space for students to learn, grow, and practice social work principles. Create a community where people feel safe.
- Revitalize and re-focus the efforts of its departmental “Empowerment” Committee to plan action steps and post those steps on the departmental website.
Members (2020-2021 academic year)
- Breanna Bain (BSW-DeSoto)
- TamiMarie Bishop (BSW-Tupelo Austin Conner (PhD)
- Eli Davis (BSW-Oxford)
- Rashun Miles (PhD)
- Susan Two Bears (MSW)
- Dr. Amy Fisher
- Dr. Jennifer Buford
- Dr. Na Youn Lee
Former Members (2020-2021 academic year)
- Andrea Munn (MSW)
- Emma Stanley (BSW-Oxford)
- Jaycee Brown (BSW-Oxford)