UDARI Announces 2021 Community Engagement Grant
Posted on February 20, 2021 at: 7:20 pm
Ogechi Nwordu, Chesnut Hill University and Doctoral Intern, Center for Counseling and Student Development, UD.
Ogechi Nwordu’s winning proposal is “Healing Us: Cultivating Healing and Change Through Empathic Listening.” Members of the BIPOC community are traumatized from the toll of experiencing injustice, discrimination, violence, health inequalities and engaging in the constant fight for equality. Outlets to express their pain and receive daily racial healing are minimal, especially since most individuals within their community are also suffering and depleted in their ability to provide healing through empathic listening. This empathetic listening training will provide a vehicle for the development of multitudes of well-being facilitators within the University of Delaware BIPOC communities, and ultimately lead to stronger kinship bonds. A strong kinship network is a coping resource for BIPOC individuals.
A major significance of this research project is that it will create a free program to equip BIPOC individuals to become healers within their communities and improve their sense of kinship by gaining empathetic listening skills. Specifically, this research project will propel the University of Delaware Antiracism Initiative goals by helping to create empowering safe spaces for the BIPOC community to share their experiences, feel heard, collaborate, and propel their goals. Additionally, if these empathic listening interventions allow BIPOC individuals to experience healing of wounds caused by marginalization and its many consequences, it may also improve their cognitive and creative abilities needed to foster resilience. Ultimately, it will allow them to think clearly, creatively, and collectively, as they continue to pursue equality and justice.