Institute for the Development of Human Arts

03/02/2026

Join us on Thursday, March 19 from 6-8pm ET for a virtual workshop with Sascha Altman DuBrul exploring hands-on, peer-led ways to strengthen our capacity for connection, reflection, and collective care. Drawing from Internal Family Systems (IFS), systemic family therapy, and the long lineage of peer movement-created tools such as Transformative Mutual Aid Practices (T-MAPs), participants will learn how to create personal and relational “maps” that help make sense of inner experience in context.

Rather than treating distress, reactivity, or extreme states as signs of something “wrong” inside individuals, the facilitator will invite a systemic lens: our inner conflicts often mirror the dynamics of the families, communities, media environments, and political systems we are living inside. The workshop will blend teaching, gentle parts work oriented exercises, and group reflection, offering a tool that can be adapted for support groups, clinical settings, and community-based work.

🔗 Register: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/transformative-mutual-aid-practices-mapping-our-inner-shared-worlds-registration-1984165406142

✔️ Access: ASL interpretation + automated captioning will be provided. The event will be recorded and shared with all registrants, alongside an edited caption transcript. Please email us at [email protected] with any further access needs or questions.

🎁 Donations: Registration is free, with a suggested donation of $10. We appreciate donations of any size for those who have capacity to give.

A virtual workshop exploring hands-on, peer-led ways to strengthen our capacity for connection, reflection, and care-centered possibilities

02/24/2026

We are thrilled to share that Jacks McNamara has joined IDHA as our new Executive Director!

Jacks brings more than two decades of experience as a facilitator, educator, writer, and activist at the forefront of transformative mental health. As co-founder of The Icarus Project (now the Fireweed Collective) and a longtime trauma healing practitioner, their work has helped shape peer support and community-based alternatives to pathologizing and coercive mental health systems.

Jacks joins IDHA at a meaningful moment in our evolution, bringing a rare combination of lived experience, movement lineage, and leadership that aligns closely with our mission.

We are deeply grateful to outgoing Executive Director Jessie Roth, whose leadership over the past seven years helped guide IDHA from a grassroots project into a thriving training institute and vibrant learning community. Jessie is supporting an intentional leadership handover, and we remain profoundly appreciative of her vision and care.

Please join us in welcoming Jacks to IDHA!

Read the full letter from our Board of Directors: https://www.idha-nyc.org/2026-ed-announcement

02/04/2026

Join us next Wednesday, February 11 for an interactive event focused on putting transformative mental health into practice in real-world contexts, across diverse roles and settings. Featuring Mayowa Obasaju, PhD, Sasha Warren, Mal Rose, and Dr. Heliana Ramirez, LISW.

In a time of acute and prolonged state violence, many of us are being called to rethink what care actually requires. Struggles for justice are unfolding within and beyond institutions, and the need for adaptive, everyday forms of support — grounded in practice, not just theory — is becoming increasingly urgent.

What does meaningful support look like when the stakes are so high? How can support skills be mobilized in service of liberation, without reproducing harm? These questions are not abstract. They are shaping how care is being practiced and contested right now.

The event will open with a panel on practicing care in a time of expanding carcerality, mass grief, and deepening social and political fracture. From there, participants will move into facilitated breakout discussions anchored around key practice tensions. This discussion-oriented gathering invites collective reflection, honest grappling, and shared learning. We’ll close with a collective harvest, honoring what becomes possible when these questions are held together rather than in isolation.

This is the sixth installment of IDHA’s “Transformative Mental Health Talks” series, which features curriculum faculty and collaborators and dives into timely topics that intersect with transformative mental health.

Registration is free, with a suggested donation of $10. ASL interpretation + captioning will be provided. The event will be recorded and shared with all registrants, alongside an edited caption transcript.

REGISTER:

An interactive event focused on putting transformative mental health into practice in real-world contexts, across diverse roles and settings

01/21/2026

Enrollment is now open for the Spring 2026 cycle of the Transformative Mental Health Core Curriculum!

At IDHA, we hold that care and healing can’t be separated from the conditions we’re living in. Mental health practice doesn’t happen in a vacuum — it’s shaped by the social, political, and relational contexts we move through every day. Ongoing state violence and the expansion of punitive systems are not abstract forces; they influence how we show up in care roles, how we relate to one another, and how we sustain ourselves over time.

This understanding is why we created the Core Curriculum. Our communities carry deep wisdom about how to offer support and push back in moments like these — wisdom shaped over generations of struggle, survival, and imagination. The curriculum is a home for that knowledge.

We just launched 4 new cohorts for the Learning Experience format, which offers facilitated virtual discussions in addition to the pre-recorded content. If you’re looking for a meaningful learning commitment to make in 2026, we’d love to have you join us.

✨ Continuing Education Available:
20.75 CE credits for Psychologists, Social Workers, Counselors, Therapists, Medical Doctors, and Nurses
20 CE credits for New York Peer Specialists and Connecticut Recovery Support Specialists

These cohorts will run between March and June of 2026. This immersive, community-oriented experience only happens twice a year, and spots are limited. Enrollment closes February 26, so don’t wait to secure your seat!

LEARN MORE AND ENROLL: https://www.idha-nyc.org/core-curriculum

12/19/2025

As we close out 2025 and our team prepares for some time off to rest and recharge, we’re reflecting on what it takes to care for ourselves and one another in complex times. We remain committed to sharing knowledges and strategies that help us all understand and practice mental health in more liberatory ways.

Our annual transformative mental health gift guide is an invitation to align your giving with your values — while helping sustain IDHA’s work and expand access to transformative mental health education.

This year’s guide centers three kinds of gifts:

1️⃣ Gifts of Learning

-Mad Studies Symposium (now available as a self-paced course, free through 12/31)
-Self-paced course bundles (all 50% off through 12/31)
-Transformative Mental Health Core Curriculum (10% off with code SAVE10)

2️⃣ Gifts of Community

-Becoming an IDHA member (or gifting a membership) to stay connected beyond individual programs

3️⃣ Gifts of Access

-Joining the Equalizing Access Giving Circle or making a one-time donation to support scholarships, subsidized memberships, and accessible programming

Find all access links in our 2025 gift guide newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/idha-nyc/give-the-gift-of-tmh-2025

We hope these offerings support our ongoing efforts to learn, unlearn, and remake systems of care together.

12/04/2025

So many of us are navigating overlapping crises right now — the erosion of basic care, housing insecurity, and the ongoing push to expand policing and surveillance in the name of “public safety.” As Dean Spade names here, systems that claim to care for us are increasingly entangled with punishment, coercion, and state control. And yet, across communities, we continue to build ways to care for one another that are rooted in dignity, interdependence, and mutual aid.

This Sunday, December 7, we’re gathering for Kindling Community, a space to deepen that conversation and practice. Join us to hear more from Dean, who will be offering a keynote on the urgent need for building care infrastructures that resist criminalization and state violence. Our program also features:

✨ A panel on collective care in times of uncertainty
✨ A transformative mutual aid practices workshop
✨ Member artist showcase

Sliding-scale tickets start at $20, and every paid ticket includes raffle entries to win transformative mental health / mutual aid-themed books. If you don’t see a price that works for you, email [email protected] — no one will be turned away due to a lack of funds.

FULL SCHEDULE: https://www.idha-nyc.org/kindling-community
TICKETS: https://idha.app.neoncrm.com/np/clients/idha/eventRegistration.jsp?event=75&

Hope to see you Sunday!

12/02/2025

For , IDHA is sharing a gift with our community:

For the next five days, every ticket to our upcoming end-of-year celebration & fundraiser, Kindling Community, includes free, early access to our new self-paced adaptation of the Mad Studies Symposium!

Hosted live last December, the Mad Studies Symposium was a first-of-its-kind gathering bringing together activists, scholars, clinicians, artists, and other advocates to celebrate the launch of the Mad Studies Reader and to explore where this field is headed next. Whether you weren’t able to attend or you’ve been wanting to revisit the conversations, we’re thrilled to offer a new way to engage with the material.

The self-paced course includes:

✨ 5+ hours of video content (20 talks from 25 contributors across disciplines, movements, and geographies)
📖 Exclusive readings from the Mad Studies Reader
📚 Robust resource lists and discussion prompts to deepen learning
💬 Space to connect and dialogue with other community members inside the course

This offering has not yet been released publicly. We’re sharing it first with Kindling Community attendees as a thank-you for supporting IDHA’s ongoing work!

Get your ticket to Kindling Community: https://idha.app.neoncrm.com/np/clients/idha/eventRegistration.jsp?event=75&
View the full schedule: https://www.idha-nyc.org/kindling-community #25-fundraiser-schedule1
Learn more about the course: https://www.idha-nyc.org/mad-studies-symposium-self-paced

Kindling Community takes place this Sunday, December 7 from 3–6:30 pm ET. The program includes a keynote by Dean Spade; a T-MAPs workshop with Sascha DuBrul; a panel on collective care with Yolo Akili Robinson, Mara Martinez-Hewitt, and Eliana Rubin; a member artist showcase with Chanika Svetvilas and Stephanie Heit, and more!

All ticket tiers include raffle entries for book bundles + IDHA swag, and all registrants will receive a recording, transcript, and resource list.

Can’t attend but want to support?

✨ Join the Equalizing Access Giving Circle to become a monthly sustainer. Recurring contributions helps fund scholarships, subsidize memberships, and expand access to transformative mental health education: https://idha.app.neoncrm.com/forms/giving-circle
✨ Make a one-time donation: https://idha.app.neoncrm.com/forms/donate

11/26/2025

As we get closer to our end-of-year celebration & fundraiser, we’re excited to spotlight this year’s raffle books and giveaways!

Throughout the day we’ll be giving away bundles of transformative mental health & mutual aid-themed books, IDHA swag (totes + t-shirts), and special grand raffle prize at the end of the event.

Deep gratitude to the faculty and community members who generously donated their work to support this event: Dean Spade, Rae Johnson, Eliana Rubin, Prentis Hemphill, Zena Sharman, Jazmine Russell, Alisha Ali, and Bradley Lewis. Visit our website to read more about each book — including titles on mutual aid, embodiment, abolition, community care, and mad studies: https://www.idha-nyc.org/kindling-community #25-fundraiser-raffle

How the raffle works:
🎟️ Every paid ticket tier comes with raffle tickets automatically.
➕ Additional tickets are $5 each and can be purchased through IDHA’s donation form (www.idha-nyc.org/donate — just include “raffle” in the donor note).

Event registration starts at $20, and every dollar supports IDHA’s community-centered mental health education. Don’t see a ticket tier that works for you? Email us at [email protected].

Get your ticket at: https://idha.app.neoncrm.com/np/clients/idha/eventRegistration.jsp?event=75&

We can’t wait to be in community with you on December 7!

11/20/2025

New on the IDHA Blog: Resounding Remnants: Art and the Echo of Lived Experience by Chanika Svetvilas.

We’re honored to share a virtual exhibition of Chanika's solo show, Resounding Remnants, currently on view at the Hunterdon Art Museum in Clinton, NJ through January 11, 2026. This blog post expands access to the exhibition for those who can’t visit in person and invites readers into Chanika’s creative process and lineage.

Across drawings, sculpture, and participatory installations, Chanika transforms lived experience, clinical encounters, and cultural memory into new visual vocabularies. Her work draws on disability justice, mad pride, and Thai heritage — reclaiming medicalized narratives and reimagining care, interdependence, and the sensory landscape of being human. Materials like DSM pages, prescription bottles, charcoal, textiles, bells, and found objects become portals into stories of resistance, comfort, and community.

Read the full piece: https://www.idha-nyc.org/post/2025/11/20/resounding-remnants-art-and-the-echo-of-lived-experience

For those in the NY area, Chanika’s catalogue launch and conversation is this Saturday, November 22 at 2 pm at the Hunterdon Art Museum.

Chanika will also be a featured artist at our Kindling Community end-of-year celebration & fundraiser on December 7! For more information and to get your ticket, visit: https://www.idha-nyc.org/kindling-community

For readers in the tri-state area, Chanika Svetvilas’s solo exhibition, Resounding Remnants , is on view at the Hunterdon Art Museum, 7 Lower Center Street, Clinton, NJ 08809, until January 11, 2026. This post aims to make the work accessible to a wider audience beyond those who can visit in pe

11/19/2025

Spotlighting the featured panel for IDHA's end-of-year celebration, Kindling Community, on December 7: Collective Care in Times of Uncertainty.

We’re living through a period of ongoing political upheaval, grief, and precarity. And yet, people continue to practice care in ways that are rooted, relational, and imaginative.

In this panel, Yolo Akili Robinson, Mara Martinez-Hewitt, and Eliana Rubin will share how they are practicing collective care amid our current conditions, in a conversation moderated by Noah Gokul. We’ll explore how practices like peer support and mutual aid can help us meet this moment with steadiness and creativity, and how our relationships can be sources of collective strength and renewal.

LEARN MORE: https://www.idha-nyc.org/kindling-community

GET YOUR TICKET: https://idha.app.neoncrm.com/np/clients/idha/eventRegistration.jsp?event=75&

This is a fundraising event and all contributions help sustain IDHA’s work. Save 15% using code KINDLING15 by this Friday, November 21. If you don’t see a ticket price that works for you, please email [email protected].

11/14/2025

Last week, IDHA hosted the tenth installment of Decarcerating Care. With Lessons in Transforming Crisis Response, we explored community-based alternatives that have emerged or evolved since 2020 and how non-carceral care is being practiced on the ground today. We were joined by Roxanne Anderson, Liz Kennedy, Mimi Kim, Stanley Martin, and Nze Okoronta in a conversation moderated by Jess Stohlmann-Rainey.

For those of you who weren't able to join us live, the recording is now available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyGQMWPH4ow&t=2s

All ten installments of the series are available on our website, alongside a resource list: https://www.idha-nyc.org/decarcerating-care

And...as we look ahead to the future of this series, we’d love to hear from you!

For five years, Decarcerating Care has drawn attention to the ways the mental health care system upholds white supremacist, racial hierarchies and operates on logics of surveillance, coercion, and control. We’re now reflecting on what’s needed in this moment — in this series and across the broader landscape of transformative mental health.

We invite you to take a few minutes to fill out this brief survey with your perspective on where this work should go next: https://docs.google.com/forms/u/5/d/1ppd3iRAmshwkARdvpI7zqMR0p9LIxAUt1hDrskcNqY8. Your reflections will help guide how the next chapter of Decarcerating Care unfolds.

11/05/2025

Tonight, we gather for the tenth installment of Decarcerating Care — five years after the original 2020 panel asked what it would take to remove police from mental health crisis response and build non-carceral systems of care.

Since then, the landscape has shifted in complex ways. Community-based crisis response efforts have sprouted and grown across the country. Grassroots care networks have deepened. And yet, we are also living through intensified surveillance, a growing push to expand involuntary commitment, and escalating state violence against mad, disabled, unhoused, and other marginalized communities.

Decarcerating Care: Lessons in Transforming Crisis Response invites us to reflect on what we’ve learned — and what comes next. Our panelists bring experience dreaming, building, and implementing community-based alternatives, grounded in movements such as mad liberation, abolition, and transformative justice. Together, we'll explore:

✨ What has and hasn’t changed since 2020
✨ Strategies communities are using to respond to crisis without coercion
✨ Lessons from on-the-ground practice — including tensions and contradictions
✨ How we can hold a long-term vision while responding to immediate threats

We hope you’ll join us as we return to the roots of this series and look toward the work ahead. REGISTER: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/decarcerating-care-lessons-in-transforming-crisis-response-registration-1828651077599

ASL interpretation + captioning will be provided. Registration is free, with a suggested donation of $10. The event will be recorded and shared with all registrants, so we invite you to sign up even if you can't attend live!