By Lindsay Bendell, PhD Student & LCSW
If I could sum up my feelings returning home from Changemakers in one word, it would be ‘energized’.
That might sound cliché, yet there is no other way to describe the energy and motivation coursing through me these last few weeks. I have attended my fair share of conferences as a public defense social worker, now turned researcher, but this one felt different. During our four days in Atlanta I had the privilege of meeting and learning from many inspiring people who I feel honored to call my colleagues. Like many others in this field, my journey has not been easy, especially the last two years as I embarked on my PhD journey at Washington University. Events like these remind me that I have an incredible community of peers all working to achieve the same mission; reshaping and reimagining the future of public defense.
Of all the electrifying speakers we heard from, my favorite was Shannon Wilson. When I heard her tell her powerful story about fighting for ethical caseloads in Oregon, it solidified my belief that when our work is guided by our value of zealous, client-centered advocacy, we are on the right path.
I appreciated that the conference did not impose a rigid schedule. Many of us arrived with little information about the specific sessions, and yet that turned out to be the conference’s greatest strength. We as attendees were trusted with shaping the agenda around our needs and the needs of the communities we serve back home. Conversations ranged from “how do we supervise a supervisor?” to “how do we create positive policy change?”. For my part, I organized a session on research partnerships for holistic defense, where we focused on data-driven outcomes for policy advocacy. Our group left with a simple, useful mantra for research work: “Who is your audience, and what is the goal”? This is a question I intend to ask myself every day moving forward.
Today, my work as a researcher feels different than my previous eight years working directly in the field, but Changemakers reminded me that those prior years shaped me into who I am today, and my goals moving forward. The past few years have been full of uncertainty for our professions, for our clients, and for our communities at large. My main takeaway from Changemakers is to trust my instincts. When initiatives conflict with our values, it is essential to remain steadfast in our commitment to clients and to ourselves. I will carry that reminder with me through both practice and research, and I hope others will, too.