Between Systems and Community: Rethinking Where Care Lives
A powerful message of self-exploration from this semester's Community College of Philadelphia restorative justice intern, Ke'Ana Robinson
DSM215’s process of integrating and learning restorative and transformative practices into our understanding of mental health and community work is ongoing and directly influenced by community members and learners like Ke'Ana. In the article below we will explore how this semester has been sparking ideas about career identity, community work, and what transformative and restorative practice looks like in the context of mental health advocacy locally.
Have you ever felt an out of body experience? That was me when I was in the P Pod in the Montgomery County Correctional facility when I witnessed the cycle of remaining within the carceral system up close and personal. A woman who was inside for violating her probation, due to substance use, was writing down the information for a dealer who would meet up with her as soon as she got released, which was any second now. Once her name was called for release, I noticed an uneasiness in my stomach. I was watching someone who had the chance to walk out of this place forever, instead walk out to do the same things that led her here in the first place. That stomach feeling wasn’t judgement. It was a sadness knowing that she might not have a community and support that can rally around her to disrupt this cycle.
My journey into Social Work is rooted in my own lived experience with depression, anxiety, substance use and the carceral system. I entered this field with a desire to see individuals and communities receive the support needed for true healing–healing not rooted in survival, oppression, or distress, like what I witnessed in that facility before I even had the language for it. I was determined to get a seat at the larger table to advocate for change within the mental health and carceral systems.
Almost immediately as a Social Work student, I was met with conflicting ideas about what justice and wellbeing actually look like. In school, we are taught self-determination, empathy, and community care. Yet in practice, systems often model the opposite: rigid rules with strings attached, and programming shaped more by funding constraints than lived experience. I began to question what it meant to “have a seat at the table” when the table itself was never designed with the people it claims to serve in mind. On the surface, these systems present themselves as pathways to liberation, but often leave us deciding whether to fight for a seat or succumb to the cycle altogether.
The more I experienced the tension of working within systems that actively cause harm, the more I sought clarity in my career path. That’s when I came across a LinkedIn post about the first ever Restorative Justice (RJ) undergraduate certificate program in Philadelphia at Community College of Philadelphia (CCP). I wasn’t familiar with RJ at the time, but after diving into the research, I was struck by the possibility of work centered on community-led approaches to healing. That curiosity led me to apply, and I was thrilled when I was accepted.
From that first class, I realized I felt out of place amongst my peers. Many participants already had ties to restorative justice organizations, or systems that utilized restorative justice practices. At the same time, much of what I was exposed to centered on diversion programs within carceral systems or school settings. As I learned more, I became interested in what restorative justice could look like when addressing mental health and healing, particularly in Black communities. When the opportunity came to choose a practicum site, that pull toward alignment led me to Deep Space Mind 215.
Ras and Bunni, the two brilliant Black social workers behind DSM215, are building a different kind of table, one rooted in the Black experience and the belief that people with lived experience should have accessible pathways into community care work, whether in community spaces or institutions. Working with DSM215 over the last few months allowed me to see how restorative and transformative justice are applied in real, community-led contexts. It didn’t fully make sense at first until I was immersed in it. They exposed me to initiatives led by amazing organizations such as Philly Homes 4 Youth, Collective Climb, and the House of Umoja, each rooted in the belief that healing and accountability can exist outside of traditional systems, through relationships, care, and embracing lived experience.
There were many moments that positively impacted me during my time with DSM215, but one in particular marked a turning point, an afternoon spent sharing a meal at Amari’s, a local West Philly spot on 50th and Baltimore. Myself, Ras, and Leah, a fellow care worker, were sitting in what felt like the best seat in the house. The sun poured in through the large bay window behind us while we ate soul food that reminded me of my grandmother’s cooking. As I listened to them talk about the care work they do, supporting other care workers, and the deep history of abolitionist organizing in the city of Philadelphia and beyond, I realized I was hearing so much of this for the first time. There was a weight to it, intense, but necessary.
Sitting there, I wondered where I fit into all of it. It felt like a crossroads: whether I belonged in this kind of on-the-ground, community-grown movement work, or within the systems I had been trained to navigate. Later that day, I kept returning to the way their individual work didn’t try to do everything, but instead held a specific role within a larger ecosystem of care.
A few weeks later, I found myself sitting in a Celebration Circle surrounded by friends, family, and community members who had been walking alongside Ras and Bunni long before this moment, the opening of their official headquarters. As I watched people share stories about the early days of Deep Space Mind 215, before the grants, before an official name, it became clear to me that we all have a seat at a table. This work did not start once DSM215 became an official organization; it started when Ras and Bunni decided to show up for their communities in whatever ways they could.
Sometimes, a table looks like friends sitting in a living room, holding each other accountable in ways that center healing over punishment. Other times, it looks like neighbors coming together during a pandemic to create a solution to a shared problem, like the community fridges across Philadelphia, where neighbors freely give and receive food, building their own system of care rooted in mutual responsibility rather than institutional access.
I think about the woman in the P Pod. I think about how easy it is to see systems as the only place care can exist, even when so much of what actually sustains people happens elsewhere, between friends, neighbors, and even strangers who choose to show up for one another. Looking back, I wonder if that uneasiness in my stomach wasn’t just sadness, but a reminder of how care often moves in ways that are less visible, but no less real, and how community carries the power to interrupt a cycle before it repeats itself. I’ve experienced this type of care in my own life, but my time with DSM215 reminded me how easily society can overlook or underestimate its impact when it exists outside of formal systems. As I move forward in my career, I carry that with me, not as certainty, but as direction, shaping how I show up between systems, communities, and everything in between.
Ke’Ana Robinson is a Licensed Social Worker, speaker, and program builder dedicated to strengthening the behavioral health workforce and creating pathways for the next generation of leaders. She is a graduate of the Community College of Philadelphia’s very first cohort of their brand new restorative justice certificate program, and completed their practicum with DSM.215 in the Spring of 2026.
We are so grateful to have spent this season with Ke’Ana. Her ideas and analysis have clarified so much for us, and we know we will be continuing our connection here in the city.
Here are some upcoming DSM.215 events and initiatives:
May 15th — The Ancestree Project youth summer orientation | 12-1pm in person/3:30-4:15pm on Zoom
Learn about a new collaboration between The Ancestree Project, Collective Climb, and Deep Space Mind 215 that promotes ancestral wisdom and environmental education to West Philly Middle-schoolers. This orientation offer's an in-person and zoom session. Register HERE.
May 19th — Climate Ready Philadelphia | 12-1:30pm on Zoom
Missed our Climate Ready workshops? Join our very last Climate Ready storytelling and feedback session, contribute to the city’s new Climate Resilience Plan and community toolkit. Register HERE.
May 22nd — Block Ready Skill-Share Survey
DSM.215 is launching our Block Ready Skill-share series. We want to provide neighbors a way to learn and teach each other strategies for community, personal, and systemic resilience. We want your ideas about what we should offer, and who we should collaborate with. Survey opens very soon, fill it out HERE.
