For 17 years, Path with Art has provided opportunities for arts engagement and community building for systems-impacted individuals, families, and communities. Our participant artists navigate recovery from intergenerational trauma, racism, homelessness, incarceration, gender-based violence, mental and behavioral health concerns, and substance use disorders.

Rooted in an expanding body of research on arts and health, our programs foster healing, empowerment, and community connection. We collaborate with over 60 social service partners, 55 teaching artists, and 34 cultural partners to create inclusive spaces for creative expression and belonging.

Our MSW practicum program is designed to provide meaningful, non-clinical social work experiences in community-building, program development, and strategic engagement. This practicum position is ideal for students in the Community-Centered Integrative Practice (CCIP) and Administration & Policy Practice (APP) specializations.

Position Overview

The Community Integration & Radical Hospitality Specialist Practicum Student will help Path with Art embed radical hospitality as a core practice, dismantling institutional barriers and fostering a culture of deep inclusion. This role is designed for students passionate about community care, participatory leadership, and the de-institutionalization of social service spaces.

Path with Art’s working definition of Radical Hospitality:
At Path with Art, radical hospitality is a core practice that embodies a culture of care, dignity, and inclusion. It means putting extraordinary effort and emphasis on making every person feel genuinely welcome, valued, and respected—especially those who have been historically marginalized or faced systemic barriers.

Radical hospitality goes beyond traditional notions of service provision; it actively works to dismantle bureaucratic and institutional barriers that often make people feel unimportant, like a burden, or undeserving of care. It prioritizes deep inclusion, participant-led engagement, and the reimagining of social spaces as places of mutual respect and belonging.

The practicum student will play a key role in:

• Observing, analyzing, and defining how the organization fosters community with an eye toward breaking down institutional barriers.
• Expanding and embedding radical hospitality, prioritizing deep inclusion, participant-led engagement, and de-institutionalizing program structures.
• Supporting the Participant Artist leadership program
• Planning and co-facilitating community meetings.
• Training and supporting volunteers in trauma-informed and radical hospitality modalities.
• Exploring opportunities for participant artists, volunteers, and teaching artists to interact in non-hierarchical ways.
• Providing recommendations for increased radical hospitality in virtual and in-person classrooms.

This practicum is ideal for students interested in applied social work in arts, culture, and grassroots community-building.

Anticipated Activities

Cultivate Radical Hospitality

• Help Path with Art embed radical hospitality in program, community and organizational structures
• Work with staff, volunteers, and participants to design engagement practices that are welcoming, flexible, and participant-driven.

Facilitate Participant Artist Leadership Program Support

• Support participant artists as leaders, advocates, and community organizers.
• Assist in organizing leadership training sessions, peer mentorship initiatives, and collaborative opportunities.
• Ensure that participant artists shape program direction and decision-making.

Plan and Facilitate Community Meeting

• Plan and co-facilitate community meetings that foster shared leadership and, as possible, decentralize authority
• Develop tools for gathering community input and ensuring that meetings reflect the needs of all community members
• Observe and evaluate meeting dynamics, identifying ways to improve participation.

Coordinate Volunteer Program Support

• Work within the volunteer program to train volunteers in radical hospitality and trauma-informed modalities.
• Support volunteers in learning de-institutionalized engagement practices that emphasize relationship-building, shared power, and deep listening.
• Collaborate on designing volunteer onboarding, orientations and training materials that center inclusivity, trauma-informed care, and community-driven engagement.

Increase Classroom-Based Radical Hospitality & Access

• Participate in Programming as a Creative Mentor classroom support volunteer to better understand the experience of our volunteers, programming and community.
• Assess current practices in virtual and in-person classrooms to identify barriers to inclusion, accessibility, and community integration.
• Develop recommendations for embedding radical hospitality in both teaching artist engagement and participant experience.
• Observe classes and identify strategies for fostering non-hierarchical, welcoming, and trauma-informed learning environments.
• Support the development of best practices and tools for increased classroom accessibility and community cohesion.

Analyze and Integrate Organizational Culture

• Explore new ways for participant artists, teaching artists, and volunteers to engage beyond traditional roles.
• Co-develop strategies for equitable access to leadership and collaboration opportunities across all program participants.