Volume 92 • Issue 17
Sounds of a community
February 23, 2024
FSUgatepost.com
Maddison Behringer / THE GATEPOST (Front left) Issa Coulibaly of Crocodile River instructing (back left to front right) Sari Bsharat, Cesar Matos, Liv West, and Iz Shields how to play the drums at the “Taste of Culture” event hosted by the CIE Feb. 20.
Chris Walsh Center uses grant to host support groups for caregivers By Adam Levine Editorial Staff The Chris Walsh Center for Educators and Families begins its second support group - Better Together: Supporting and Informing Caregivers of Neurodivergent Children - for caregivers of neurodivergent children March 7. This is the second support group funded by an $18,500 grant from the Sudbury Foundation, according to the University’s website. Deborah McMakin, professor of psychology and philosophy and program coordinator of the counseling psychology master’s program, said she is the facilitator of the support group this semester and was the co-facilitator with Jessica Ames, a clinical social worker, during the support group in the fall -
Building Resiliency: A Group for Caregivers of Neurodivergent Children. McMakin said these two support groups are geared toward caregivers of neurodivergent children and usually have five to 10 participants each session but are open to up to 20. She said, “Because the group is voluntary, we don’t require people to share a lot about themselves, but they just have to self-identify as a caregiver for a neurodivergent child.” McMakin said many of the caregivers are parents and the children they care for may be a wide range of ages. “That became really helpful because when people in a group start talking to each other and sharing their experiences, that’s really where the power of the group goes - where everyone can be a teacher and a learner in the group,” she said.
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McMakin said she researched topics for the group’s curriculum, such ELEVATOR pg. 4 as how to teach caregivers to support the children they care for to engage ENVIRONMENT pg. 5 in “advocacy, communication, [and] self-compassion.” She said she hopes “we’re building these social connections that hopefully will go beyond just the spring” and TRINKETS pg. 6 that the support groups can continue BALANCE pg. 7 to be funded through the Center. McMakin said she wants caregivers to know the support group is “a space for them to come and all they need to do is show up and be present” and “to be acknowledged - to be validated.” Emily Farnhill, a graduate assistant at the Chris Walsh Center who is currently pursuing her master of arts degree in counseling psychology, said the
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See CHRIS WALSH Page 3
Black student leaders foster community at FSU By Raena Doty Editorial Staff Black History Month, celebrated in February every year, is a chance to educate people about and honor the cultural contributions and advancements of Black people around the world. And thanks to the contributions of student affinity group leaders, there are constant celebrations of Blackness going on around the school, during February and beyond. Anyone who finds themselves in the Center for Inclusive Excellence (CIE) on Mondays may stumble upon a MISS Monday - the weekly meeting for Motivation. Intersectionality. Solidarity.
Sisterhood., an affinity group for women of color on campus. Led by President Tiffany Jerome, a senior management major, the group fosters education, connection, and empowerment for women of color, who may be left behind when they don’t have support and solidarity from one another. Jerome has been president of MISS for two years now and said when she took on the role, there were very few active participants in the club. “I was the only eBoard member for about eight, maybe nine months, and it was very, very hard,” she said. At that time, MISS had no funding because it was inactive for a semester,
Izabela Gage / THE GATEPOST she said, and added the main challenge MENS BASKETBALL pg. 8 to getting new students was finding WOMENS BASKETBALL pg. 9 members who wanted to be actively involved. “Sometimes I spent two, three weeks in a row where it was just myself sitting in a room,” she said. Jerome added that after a lot of work, MISS began to accumulate membership, and today, the club has a full eBoard. She said a typical meeting takes a lot of thought from the eBoard, because they want the subject of meetings to be inclusive of all women of color and relevant to people’s lives. Maddison Behringer / THE GATEPOST INCARCERATED WOMEN pg. 10 See AFFINITY GROUPS Page 11 TASTE OF CULTURE pg. 12
INSIDE: OP/ED 6 • SPORTS 8 • ARTS & FEATURES 10
Arts & Features