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About Us

We provide education, training, and support to individuals, groups, and organizations engaged in social work, education, counseling, social services, advocacy, and more.

Our approach is justice-based liberatory practice. We are culturally-affirming, person-centered, socially conscious, and trauma-informed. We utilize a systemic analysis of sociocultural factors in our healing and justice work.

We draw from the traditions of social movements, healing practices, anti-racist and anti-oppressive social work and counseling, and equity justice.

image of Shimon White Jewish male with short hair and beard in front of green palm trees in black Doin' The Work shirt

SHIMON COHEN, MSSW, LCSW

FOUNDER & CEO, INSTRUCTOR

I’m Shimon (he/him), therapist, educator, podcaster, and change agent.

I’m a licensed clinical social worker in Maine and Florida and earned my MSSW at Columbia University. I’m passionate about racial justice and liberatory social work. I have over 20 years of practice experience and have been teaching professionals, graduates, and undergraduates for over 10 years. I’m the host and producer of the nationally recognized podcast Doin’ The Work: Frontline Stories of Social Change.

Additionally, I serve as the Board President at EduExito, Inc., a non-profit providing school supplies to students in isolated, rural communities in the Dominican Republic.

I enjoy family time with my wife, two daughters, and dog.

image of Charla, Black woman with curly hair siting on blue stairs in a dress

CHARLA CANNON YEARWOOD, MSSW, LCSW

INSTRUCTOR

I’m Charla (she/ her), disrupter of the status quo, Founder & Clinical Director of Connected in Community.

I am a licensed clinical social worker in the state of Indiana and earned my MSSW from the University of Tennessee Knoxville. I’m all about liberation, social justice, and community. I believe that we are all connected in community. Meaning, my healing is tied to your healing. I see therapy, education, and effective services for the community as part of our liberation work. My teaching and research focus on, liberation theories, equity, abolition, and the integration of social justice with clinical mental health services.

Outside of work, my husband and I have two little humans, two dogs, and a cat.