What does it look like when a brand-new academic department hits the ground running? For the WSU Tri-Cities Social Work Department, it looks like a packed room, a powerful film, and a conversation that extended well beyond the credits.
Bringing Disability Justice to the Big Screen
The WSU Tri-Cities Social Work Department, in partnership with WSU ROAR, recently hosted a screening of “The Ride Ahead: Love, Tattoos, and other Disabled Things”, a film that follows the experience of growing up with a disability and champions the importance of disability advocacy, justice, and belonging. The event, made possible through generous support from the Three Rivers Community Foundation, brought together WSU ROAR students, WSU Tri-Cities students, faculty, and community members for an evening centered on shared learning and honest dialogue.
The screening was more than a movie night. It was a deliberate act of community building — an invitation for people with different lived experiences to sit together, watch together, and talk together about issues that matter deeply in the Tri-Cities and beyond.
A Conversation That Connected Film to Life
Following the screening, Social Work faculty member and disabilities scholar Dr. Nick Winges-Yanez led a community conversation that wove the film’s themes into students’ own experiences and the realities of the broader Tri-Cities community. The discussion gave voice to perspectives that are too often left out of campus conversations, and it modeled exactly the kind of engaged, justice-centered scholarship the Social Work Department is committed to.
The event also reflected the strength of collaboration within the College of Education, Sport, and Human Sciences (CESHS) at Washington State University. The partnership between the Social Work Department — led by Department Chair RoseAnne Droesch — and WSU ROAR, whose team includes Director Kristi Tippett, Transition Coordinator Jessie George, and Academic Coordinator Casey Blamires, demonstrated what is possible when university programs build meaningful relationships across departments and with the community.
Building Something That Lasts
As a new department in CESHS, Social Work is already proving that meaningful community engagement does not have to wait. By partnering with WSU ROAR and securing funding through the Three Rivers Community Foundation, the department created an experience where students learned from lived stories, community members found a seat at the table on campus, and conversations about disability, inclusion, and belonging moved from theory into practice.
This event is an early signal of what the WSU Tri-Cities Social Work Department intends to be: not just a place where students earn a degree, but an active, invested partner in the communities it serves. If this is what the beginning looks like, there is a great deal to look forward to.
You can learn more about Social Work at WSU Tri-Cities here and about WSU ROAR here.