Trauma in Systems: Designing Digital Care for Youth, with Ila Kumar

Healing from trauma doesn’t happen only in clinical spaces. Digital spaces can also be a lifeline, as Ila Kumar explains in this visit with hosts Bridgette Stumpf and Lindsey Silverberg. A PhD candidate and research assistant in the Lifelong Kindergarten group at the MIT Media Lab, Ila focuses her scholarship on non-traditional pathways that support mental health care, particularly for youth in foster care systems. “I don't necessarily see myself as someone who believes that these digital spaces will be sites of healing,” Ila says. “But I feel that the only way to try to get to that goal of digital spaces that are healing is to do so in a way that considers holistic wellbeing and centers the needs, voices, and context of those who are most impacted.”

In this conversation, Ila shares her approaches to helping vulnerable kids as they navigate the foster care system. As a technology designer, she explains that centering youth voice “leads to technologies that more effectively take youth's needs, barriers, cultures concerns into account and results in technologies that are definitely more impactful, engaging, and accessible.” And she stresses the balance between leveraging tools that carry potential risks – such as augmented reality platforms that claim to make lives easier – and tools that support youth self-expression, connectedness with others, and development of their identity.

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☑️ Ila Kumar | LinkedIn

☑️ Bridgette Stumpf | LinkedIn

☑️ Lindsey Silverberg | LinkedIn

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Brought to you by Volare, TraumaTies: Untangling Societal Harm & Healing After Crime is a podcast that creates space and conversations to dissect the structural and systemic knots that keep us from addressing trauma.

Rooted in a belief that survivors of crime deserve respect for their dignity in the aftermath of victimization, Volare seeks to empower survivors by informing them of all of the options available and working to transform existing response systems to be more inclusive of the diverse needs that survivors often have after crime.

Volare also provides free, holistic, and comprehensive advocacy, therapeutic, and legal services to survivors of all crime types. Visit our website to learn more about how to access our trauma-informed education training and how to partner with us to expand survivor-defined justice.