In Trinidad and Tobago, calypsonians, who are also called kaisonians, perform kaiso, the Afro-Trinidadian art of storytelling through song. A singer delivers sharp, witty commentary on politics and daily life, and the crowd answers with choruses, shouts, and laughter. Kaiso is call and response as social critique, with the community as co-author.

In South Carolina____________

To call and respond, across the diaspora, is a language of belonging. It values being engaged and active participation. We openly sing out and receive an answer; the answer is not an interruption, it’s part of the flow, something that lets you know we are in this together, heard and seen, and ready to proceed. To call and respond maintains connection to people and culture, whether to revel, grieve, worship, to resist, through rhythm, voice, physical movement, and expression. It is also a practice of accountability: the call is only as strong as the response. 

Communities across the nation are navigating an evolving cycle of social and political challenges. We understand that systemic change does not have a nice and neat single endpoint, where we declare “Problem solved!” That is why we operate as a Design Lab, not a traditional institute. We value and operate in a continuous cycle of innovation, prototyping, and community-centered problem solving, collaborating and adapting in how we promote change.

For Call and Response Lab, this is the thread that ties the work together. There is a call and response between facilitators and participants in which every stakeholder is a co-designer, building, testing, and refining solutions that drive sustainable, systemic change. Our name honors a tradition that has always understood change and care as collective work.

We come to this work with personal experience as social workers, community organizers, and as humans.

Social workers and community advocates hold powerful significance within the fabric of society, yet they are often stretched thin. The realities show up as deliberate or unconscious limits on resources, moral distress, chaotic social and political environments, and workplaces or movement spaces that struggle to sustain them. Some of us practice within institutions, others in grassroots organizations, coalitions, or volunteer roles, and many do so feeling isolated even when surrounded by others engaged in the work, navigating it all without consistent access to reciprocal support, mentorship, or sustainable practices and spaces.

The consequences reach beyond the individual. Burnout, turnover, and conflict affect how we show up for each other and for our communities. Because health equity depends on the people who deliver care and the people who advocate alongside communities, their well-being shapes the quality, continuity, and equity of the care and support that communities receive.

Health equity is about more than the clinical workforce. It means removing the barriers that keep some communities from reaching their full health, and those barriers are social, economic, and political. The people closest to them are often community advocates, organizers, peer supporters, community health workers, and neighbors who are not licensed professionals. That is why we welcome them alongside social workers and healthcare professionals as part of the care ecosystem, and why health equity depends on the whole web of people who care for communities, not only those with clinical credentials.

We believe investing in this whole web of care is not a luxury or a perk. It is a public health strategy and a matter of justice. Call and Response Lab supports these changemakers and the organizations that employ or partner with them so that communities facing the greatest barriers have access to care and advocacy from people who are supported, connected, and sustained.

We believe the strain people feel is both personal and political. Wellness matters because no one can sustain this work depleted and alone. But much of what exhausts social workers and advocates alike, including underfunded services, unstable housing, inaccessible care, and discriminatory systems, comes from policy choices, not individual shortcomings. Caring for people without addressing those conditions treats the symptom and leaves the cause. Advocating for change without caring for the people leading it burns them out.

So we hold both commitments at once. Political social work, advocacy, and civic engagement are central to who we are, not an add-on, and so is the well-being of the people doing the work. Social work was born from a commitment to social justice, and that tradition has always included organizing, testifying, voting, and shaping policy alongside direct practice. Community advocates carry that tradition forward from outside professional structures, often with deep lived experience and community accountability. We bring these groups into conversation, because each has tools the other needs.

Our programs are rooted in popular education and knowledge exchange, a tradition that begins with the experience of the people in the room and connects personal stories to larger social realities. No one is only an expert or only a learner. Facilitators guide, but participants contribute, question, and teach. Knowledge moves in every direction: between seasoned clinicians and new graduates, between grassroots organizers and institutional leaders, and between community members and the professionals who serve them.

This method supports both of our commitments. Learning in community reduces isolation and restores energy, and learning together, naming shared problems, and imagining solutions collectively builds the confidence and skills people need to take part in public life. In this way, the way we learn is itself a practice of wellness and a civic practice