Rashni Stanford currently serves as a Stoneleigh Fellow with Deep Space Mind 215 Cooperative. In this role, Rashni and co-collaborator Carmel Brown are developing a novel, community-driven approach to youth mental healthcare, which draws upon the strengths of people with lived experience and provides a pathway into the mental health provider workforce.
Rashni is a licensed social worker in Pennsylvania, a certified peer specialist, and a youth organizer with a track record of successful advocacy and coalition building. Rashni brings experience providing direct services in drop-in centers, residential treatment centers, shelters, and gun violence prevention programs. In addition, Rashni was a 2019 Blade of Grass Fellow for the Art and Social Change program, which helped increase the scope of Deep Space Mind 215. In 2017, Rashni was awarded a Stoneleigh Emerging Leader Fellowship at People’s Emergency Center, where they founded and directed the youth-led housing justice collective, Youth Healers Stand Up! Rashni is a published and exhibited science fiction writer, artist, and Afrofuturist community worker.
Rashni holds an associate’s degree from the Community College of Philadelphia, a bachelor’s degree from Chestnut Hill College, and a Master of Social Service degree from Bryn Mawr College.
