From a new spin on mental health awareness, supporting others through a virtual safe space, or donating funds originally earmarked for an in-person career development event, Master of Social Work (MSW) students at the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work are finding ways to connect with fellow students and the community under “shelter at home” orders.

USC closed its campuses and transitioned to remote learning in early March, encouraging social distancing to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus.

The day the closure was announced, MSW student Carina Romero had been putting up flyers around campus for the “Trojans Light the Way” event she was planning for March 24. She came home, opened her email and saw the news. “I think I cried,” she said.

Shining light on mental health

As co-chair of the National Association of Social Workers-USC Unit (NASW-USC), Romero had been working to raise awareness of mental health issues during March as part of National Social Work Month. She had been more successful than she had hoped, winning the support of USC President Carol Folt to turn the lights green at three University Park campus landmarks: the Patsy and Forrest Shumway Fountain at Trousdale Parkway and Childs Way, the fountain at Epstein Family Plaza at USC Viterbi School of Engineering, and at Waite Phillips Hall (home of the USC Rossier School of Education) in honor of the month.

The green color has significance. In the 1800s, medical professionals distinguished the mentally ill in hospitals by having them wear green labels. Today, mental health advocates use the color green as a symbol of strength and unity in mental health wellness.

While the green lights had been lighting campus landmarks since March 1, Romero and her fellow NASW-USC members had hoped to do even more through an evening event called Trojans Light the Way on March 24. They planned to line Pardee Lawn with luminarias dedicated to those impacted by mental health issues, lighting each and taking a moment of silence.

Shifting from in-person to online

For Romero, organizing the after-dark event was going to be a legacy of her time at USC. The disappointment at its cancellation hurt. But within that week, she decided that she had to continue the work. She shifted the in-person event to a fully virtual challenge called “Trojans Shine On,” inviting people to share stories of how they were coping with the COVID-19 health challenge.

They collected stories on Instagram under the hashtag #TrojansShineOn Social Work Month challenge, with a drawing for Amazon gift cards as added incentive. Community members stepped up, sharing their feelings and strategies for wellness.

“Our goal was to fill social media with hope,” Romero said. If in-person connections are not possible, virtual ones can fill the need.

We can’t just stop

NASW-USC Unit co-chair and MSW student Venita Polonio says it was important to her to try to be grounded in what they could do next, rather than focus on what had been cancelled. She had been organizing the Innovative Paths in Social Work Practice event, a career-themed event with a creative arts spin. A $1,000 grant from the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work would help fund food and art supplies for a vision board creation session; a panel of expert speakers would offer perspectives on the different paths a social work career could take.

As campus events continued to be cancelled, Polonio felt both overwhelmed and helpless. But soon, her desire to help others took over. “We can’t just stop doing things,” she said. “So we started thinking, what can we do now?”

On one of the regular check-in calls with NASW-USC members, they came up with a plan to donate the $1,000 originally earmarked for the event. They secured permission from the school to use the funds in this way, then created a process for selecting the nonprofits they would help. With the elderly and those experiencing homelessness especially vulnerable to COVID-19, they compiled a list of nonprofits helping those populations and then screened each to see how quickly they could use the funds.

In the end, they sent cash donations to supportive housing provider Downtown Women’s Center and youth shelter My Friend’s Place. They also partnered with a local clothing maker called Joah Love to send a supply of cloth face masks to senior support charity ONEGeneration. Thanks to Joah Love’s buy-one-give-one charitable donation model, the students’ purchasing power was doubled. A bonus was that the purchase helped a small, minority-owned business in the area.

Disappointment sparks an idea

For MSW student Suzanna Wheeler, the suspension of the spring NASW-USC Unit events that she had been helping to plan for six months was heartbreaking. “I was legitimately grieving those losses,” she said.

She knew she wasn’t alone. She heard fellow students in the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work’s Virtual Academic Center (VAC) voicing their own challenges: internships cancelled or taken online, schedules disrupted by school-age children now at home all day, or family members losing jobs.

The idea came to her. Why not set up an online support group where MSW students could gather to support one another? As a VAC student living in Temecula, California, she was very comfortable connecting with others in the virtual space. She started by spreading the word to her classmates. The idea circulated quickly among the MSW students, moving from VAC students to the on-ground students, and even being shared by a professor as well as the National Association of Social Workers, California Chapter.

A different kind of connection

Six students joined the first “Safe Space” session on March 15. Wheeler led the group through the ground rules establishing confidentiality, introductions, a discussion of the grieving process and finding balance, followed by open discussion.

“As social workers, we’re expected to keep pushing on,” Wheeler said. “We need to create space for ourselves to grieve these losses.” Feeling disappointment and even anger is natural. Acknowledging those feelings and being creative about finding solutions are key to the ability to adapt to change and spring back with resiliency.

Wheeler closes each Safe Space session by bringing the conversation’s focus to finding gratitude, followed by a mindfulness breathing exercise. The sessions, held on Mondays at 2 p.m. PST and Tuesdays at 11:00 a.m. PST, draw different people each time, Wheeler said. Some she recognizes from her classes, others are new to her.

Wheeler plans on facilitating the sessions through the end of the semester. As a MSW student in the fifth of six semesters, she said she will evaluate the need to bring the Safe Space sessions back in the summer.

Hectic schedules may keep people from participating regularly but holding the time open for her fellow students is important to Wheeler. “I’ll be there, even if there is only one person checking in that day,” she said.

Relationships continue

For Romero, motivation to find new ways to connect despite shelter-in-place orders came from a social media post she came across. It read: “Events have been cancelled; relationships won’t be cancelled; hope won’t be cancelled.”

Even as the fabric of life has changed due to the public health emergency, Romero said it has been important to remember that their goal was always to help others. “I’m holding on to that purpose,” she said. “We have to Fight On.” It is just time to find different ways to connect. These students are leading the way.