Verses & Voices, a new community experience at UT Social Work, continued its experiment in collaborative storytelling and songwriting, this time with a deep emotional register.

Andy Langer, program director for the Moritz Center for Societal Impact, once again hosted, interviewing Noël Busch-Armendariz, LMSW, MPA, Ph.D., University Presidential Professor and associate dean for Global Engagement at The University of Texas at Austin School of Social Work.

Their dialogue explored restorative practice, resiliency, and the question at the heart of social work: how do practitioners protect their joy while walking alongside communities in pain?

Since 2022, Busch-Armendariz has co-led a team responding to the urgent needs in Uvalde, Texas, following the school shooting in May of that year. As part of that work, the team is developing a playbook, particularly for leaders for rural communities, who experience crises such as mass violence — a trauma-informed guide to building services that address community-defined needs and harm through restorative practices that foster trust, dialogue, and long-term community resilience.

“If local services are not well thought out, the community won’t come,” she explained. “Social workers know how to listen deeply and develop services and systems that meet a community’s needs.”

The conversation acknowledged the emotional toll of this work. Langer asked how social workers sustain themselves in the face of overwhelming stress and secondary trauma.

“I often look at the resiliency of the survivors,” Busch-Armendariz said. “That’s how I abate the burnout.”

The session closed with a songwriting exercise led by artist-in-residence Travis Foster. Together, attendees began crafting a fictional song about a young woman’s experience with human trafficking — a poignant and powerful way to process the themes of the session. Songwriting, as Foster reminded the group, can foster empathy and externalize difficult emotions by merging language and music.

The final Verses & Voices session of the Fall 2025 semester convenes on Thursday, Nov. 6, in Walter Webb Hall.