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Transcript
My name is ShiKayla Clancy. I am 29 years old, and I’ve lived on the Hill my whole entire life. Actually, I grew up right around the corner on Bedford Ave. My family has lived in the same house for about 50 years or so. I grew up there. My mother grew up there, cousins grew up there. So I’ve always lived in my neighborhood.
When I was younger, I worked in my neighborhood. So I did a program similar to Learn and Earn. There was like a mission discovery program through the Science Center I did, and everything was based on the Hill. My first real job was at the PNC right down the street. The Hill District for me was always a place that felt like home. My childhood was lit. All I can remember is in the summer, myself, my little sister, older cousin, younger cousins, like, we had a pretty big backyard, and my mom made it a point to have, like, big wheels and slides and, like, pools and all types of stuff for us to do in the summer. And we would just play from sun up to sundown and then, at the end of the night, you know, my mom would feed everyone.
I remember my great aunts and uncles, who were my grandmother’s brothers and sisters, coming to the backyard. You know, it was always a thing to go to Cat’s house. That was my grandma’s nickname. “Let’s go down Cat’s house” or “let’s do this at Cat’s house.” And they would have their chairs out, and they would just talk, and laugh, and joke, and the kids would be running in and out of them, getting yelled at. That was probably one of my most vivid memories, because that stuff doesn’t happen now, but it’s such a happy memory, and it’s such a- it’s something that I hold very dear to my heart because not everyone was able to have a childhood like I had. My mother, Kim Marie Clancy. She passed away March 12th, 2018. God rest her soul. She was. I mean, everyone probably says it’s about their moms, but she was the absolute best person in the world, not just woman, but best person in the world. She was loving. She was caring. She was fun. She was selfless. I have friends who lost parents before too and she’s accepted them and took them under her wing. Just was that support and that motherly figure to them because my mother was like that. Myself and my sister, we were just… That’s how we grew up helping others and wanting for nothing, like all of our needs were met. I can’t remember a time that- that I went without my mother. She sacrificed a lot of her own goals and dreams. She always wanted to be a mother. I believe before she passed away, she was able to fulfill that goal of being a mother and a grandmother because my sister has a three-year old son. So for two years, she was able to be a grandmother, and she poured into my nephew just as much as she poured into myself and my sister Jada, so… She was amazing. It was rough. It still is rough. It’s something that I would never wish on my worst enemy to lose a parent. But on the flip side, it has taught me how strong I actually can be. It also taught me that it’s OK to not be OK and it’s OK to reach out for help.
It’s OK for me to say, hey, something’s not right and seek professional help. I’m a spiritual person and I can pray, but I also believe that the higher power I believe in gave doctors and professionals the knowledge to help people like me who are struggling through such great loss. It’s a process. Grieving is something that is normal, but I think you know, especially in the black community, we have to take it, take mental health more seriously, especially when it relates to things like grief and loss. I’m currently enrolled in school. I did my two years at CCAC, and now in the fall I’ll be starting at Pitt in the social work program. I’m super duper excited about that because I get the opportunity to finally do something I really, really want to do. In 2016, I started working with Pittsburgh Public Schools, and that’s what solidified me wanting to work in social work and changing the narrative of what social work is because to majority of people, when they hear the word social work, it’s, “Ohh you guys are the people that come and take people’s kids away,” and that’s a very small, small fraction of the area of social work. You can find a social worker in pretty much any area of life professionally, personally. So I’m very committed to changing that narrative and as well lifting people up and empowering people, especially kids as I climb.